Metabolomics in Diagnostics

For decades, doctors have been measuring a few metabolites to aid in the diagnosis of patients ailments glucose in the case of diabetes is an example. Metabolomics researchers, however, search through hundreds of molecules to tease out single compounds or groups of compounds that serve as a signature of a particular disease state. 

After this step, they adapt to a true high-throughput screening method that measures each of the internal standards and biomarker precursor-product transitions by direct injection. By eliminating the chromatographic step, it is possible to reduce sample analysis time to one minute per sample, and the biomarker-intemal standard ratio is used to determine to which population the analyzed sample belongs, disease state or control. 

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