Every cellular component has an 'ome.' There is a genome, a proteome, a transcriptome, and a glycome to catalog DNA, protein, RNA, and sugars, respectively. Not to be outdone, the low-molecular-weight compounds that carry out much of the cell's business--lipids, carbohydrates, vitamins, and hormones, among others--now have an 'omics' to call their own, too. They are the focus of a small but growing field called metabolomics.
"Biology encompasses genes, proteins, and metabolites. Any biologist without an agenda to promote will tell you that each of these are important," says Chris Becker, director of chemistry at Mountain View, Calif.-based SurroMed. The global study of these metabolites goes by the name metabolomics. Another term, metabonomics, refers specifically to studies of the changes in the metabolic profiles of higher organisms in response to stress.
Metabolomics researchers generally concentrate on biofluids, including blood serum, urine, and spinal fluid. These samples already are routinely tested ...
