[New-generation high-throughput technologies based 'omics' research strategy in human disease]

Abstract

In recent years, new-generation high-throughput technologies, including next-generation sequencing technology and mass spectrometry method, have been widely applied in solving biological problems, especially in human diseases field. This data driven, large-scale and industrialized research model enables the omnidirectional and multi-level study of human diseases from the perspectives of genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics levels, etc. In this paper, the latest development of the high-throughput technologies that applied in DNA, RNA, epigenomics, metagenomics including proteomics and some applications in translational medicine are reviewed. At genomics level, exome sequencing has been the hot spot of the recent research. However, the predominance of whole genome resequencing in detecting large structural variants within the whole genome level is coming to stand out as the drop of sequencing cost, which also makes it possible for personalized genome based medicine application. At trancriptomics level, e.g., small RNA sequencing can be used to detect known and predict unknown miRNA. Those small RNA could not only be the biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis, but also show the potential of disease treatment. At proteomics level, e.g., target proteomics can be used to detect the possible disease-related protein or peptides, which can be useful index for clinical staging and typing. Furthermore, the application and development of trans-omics study in disease research are briefly introduced. By applying bioinformatics technologies for integrating multi-omics data, the mechanism, diagnosis and therapy of the disease are likely to be systemically explained and realized, so as to provide powerful tools for disease diagnosis and therapies.