Biomarker Discovery and Omics

In the discussion of biomarker discovery a number of omics terms have been used to divide the types of biomolecules into different fields metabolomics, lipidomics, glycomics, proteomics, etc. This has some usefulness in defining what one is looking for, but unfortunately biology is not that simple. In many cases natural lines do not really exist between different types of biomolecules. 

In this discussion of biomarker discovery, the arguments will be appropriate to aU of the omics that have been coined. The fundamental differences between these different classes of biomolecules are the specific tools/techniques used for separation, detection, and identification. The principles governing design and development of biomarker discovery experiments are not affected by the type of compound or the tools used for the experiments. 

---