Human Metabolome Project

An insight is provided here into the current state-of-the-art for the compositional analysis of molecules in food utilising high-resolution NMR spectroscopy in conjunction with multivariate data analysis techniques. The recent Human Metabolome Project (http //www.metabolomics.ca) has identified 2,500 metabolites, 1,200 drugs, and 3,500... 

Metabolomics is often employed in early discovery projects and used for the identification of biomarkers. In mammalian systems, the metabolites so identified are often contained in NMR databases, which, depending on the database, are either commercially or freely available to the public (e.g., Human Metabolome Database).37 There is considerably less nonmammalian NMR information available in these databases. While this is an obvious problem for plant biochemists, it can also impact biomarker discovery utilizing other organisms,... 

Despite advances in modem technology and increased understanding of both human and microbial genomes, a number of important questions remain. Large-scale microbiome-characterization efforts such as the Human Microbiome Project and American Gut, coupled with advances in both metagenomics and metabolomics are starting to reveal the importance and complex interactions of the gut microbiota. Both prebiotic... 

Metabolomics is now an integral part of most major systems biology grants we can thus expect more coordinated large-scale efforts and projects of high-quality research where metabolite profiling data will be fused with that from other Omics platforms. Most importantly, standardization and establishment of robust and reliable cross-platform metabolomics databases are absolutely necessary. Such initiatives (57) are needed to promote the topic and finally assess its utility in enhancing the quality of human life. 

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