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by David Colquhoun

LETTERS

Too Many 'Omics
University College London

Email: David Colquhoun - d.colquhoun@ucl.ac.uk
The Scientist 2005, 19(3):8

Published 14 February 2005

It is an old maxim that if you want to get on, invent a new word for your particular niche in an old area, and so become an instant expert. This process seems to have gone mad. A recent article in The Scientist that referred to "nutri genomics" [1] prompted me to see just how many -omics had now been coined. Well over 100 neologisms are listed at http://www.genomicglossaries.com/content/omes.asp. A few of the more ghastly examples are foldomics, functomics, GPCRomics, inomics, ionomics, interactomics, ligandomics, localizomics, pharmacomethylomics and separomics. None of these refers to areas of work that did not exist before the coining of the new word. Perhaps, as an electrophysiologist working on recombinant ion channels, I should dub myself an expert on ohmomics.


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