Omics applications metabolomics

Foodomics involves the use of multiple tools to deal with its different applications. Thus, the use of omics tools (as e.g., transcriptomics, proteomics, or metabolomics) is a must in this new discipline. Although a detailed description on these tools is out of the scope of this chapter, some fundamental concepts on different omics techniques are provided below. 

Today, mass spectrometry has become one of the most widely used analytical techniques in the life sciences [11,12], The mass spectrometric analysis of different classes of biomolecules is reviewed in this chapter peptides, proteins, nucleic acids, oligosaccharides and lipids. Several applications are detailed for each class. Metabolomics, which is the omics science of metabolism, will also be examined at the end of the chapter. 

Although the coining of the term metabolomics has been relatively new, an explosion of publications has occurred in this field plus a realization that many researchers already were doing similar studies, albeit without an -omic tag before the word. It has not been possible to review all the applications of metabolomics fully, and the applications will increase. In addition to the development of new applications, the development of the analytical approaches will also take center stage as researchers push back the limits of detection of NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and other analytical approaches. In addition to these wet lab developments, both the pattern recognition approaches used to process metabolomics and the metabolomic databases used to identify metabolites need to be developed or expanded. In this respect, an excellent place to start on the arduous journey to biomarker discovery through metabolomics is the current metabolomic databases found on the web that make standard spectra freely available (68-70). 

Many existing chemicals have not been thoroughly evaluated for potential developmental/adult neurotoxicity. Currently there is a need for cost-effective predictive tools and testing methods to generate human safety information to make regulatory decisions. The application of innovative methods such as high content OMICS techniques (transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) (described in Chap. 18) in combination with stable human in vitro... 

The use of human-derived stable differentiated cultures of target organs will be extremely useful for the discovery and development of new translational biomarkers. Omic technologies such as transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics have proven to be excellent tools for understanding drug-induced perturbations, especially when used in combination with appropriate cell culture models [13, 122], The further understanding of how cells differentiate and maintain tissue-specific functions will also be crucial for the discovery of new biomarkers [123]. Importantly, the development of new mechanistically informative biomarkers is not just useful for clinical applications, but these markers will also be useful to drive the development of better, more predictive, human-based in vitro test systems to improve on the predictive power of whole-animal experiments in preclinical testing scenarios. 

Until recently, this approach has focused mainly on the stndy of human diseases, pharmaceuticals, plant metabolism analysis, and toxicology. However, nowadays it is being extended to food science for food component analysis, food quality and authenticity, and food consumption monitoring in order to improve consumer health and confidence. Because metabolomics allows the simultaneous characterization of large numbers of molecules, this approach has been recently introduced by food and nutrition scientists to obtain a comprehensive fingerprint of food and nutrition. In this context, Cifuentes [2] introduced the term foodomics as a discipline that stndies food and nutrition domains through the application of advanced omics technologies. 

Fig. 3 Omics methods and their areas of application. Alterations can be detected at several biological levels in the organism. Transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics have all been employed to detect unintended effects but most published examples relate to metabolomics...

Therefore, some applications restricted until now to FT-ICR (TOF analyzers have not been used, due to lack of resolving power) can be transferred to orbitrap analyzers, such as proteomics metabolomics, and other omics approaches. The main advantage is that orbitrap does not need such an expensive and delicate maintenance as FT-ICR does. 

Functional ecology is a field of application of metabolomics. It generally accompanies an Omics type of combined approaches and is made possible by a certain understanding of chemical and molecular processes driving the physiology of a species and its biotic interactions. In fact, the change of scale linked to the transfer of studies from the laboratory to the natural environment induces different levels of complexity, such as ... 

In terms of apphcations, reviews on novel bioanalytical methods based on the use of enzymes, DNAzymes, antibodies, cell slices, to mention the more typical ones, are highly welcome. Articles on subjects related to the areas including genomics, prote-omics, metabolomics, high-throughput screening, but also bioinformatics and statistics as they relate to bioanalytical methods are of course also welcome. Reviews cover both fundamental aspects and practical applications. 

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