Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016;12(9):148.
doi: 10.1007/s11306-016-1108-4. Epub 2016 Sep 2.

The metabolome 18 years on: a concept comes of age

Douglas B Kell  1 , Stephen G Oliver  2
Affiliations
Review

The metabolome 18 years on: a concept comes of age

Douglas B Kell et al. Metabolomics. 2016.

Abstract

Background: The term 'metabolome' was introduced to the scientific literature in September 1998.

Aim and key scientific concepts of the review: To mark its 18-year-old 'coming of age', two of the co-authors of that paper review the genesis of metabolomics, whence it has come and where it may be going.

Keywords: Functional genomics; Metabolome; Precision medicine; Systems biology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

DBK and SGO have no conflict of interest to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The ‘forward’ and ‘reverse’ strategies that have been used to link genes and phenotypes. Classically, one would start with a function and seek gene(s) responsible. As it became clearer that most genes were phenotypically silent, it emerged from the systematic genome sequencing programs that only a small fraction of genes had been discovered in this way. The systematic genome sequencing programs also served to change this completely, as once one ‘had’ the genes it was necessary to discover their function. A similar story can be written for drug discovery (Kell 2013)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abate-Pella D, Freund DM, Ma Y, et al. Retention projection enables accurate calculation of liquid chromatographic retention times across labs and methods. Journal of Chromatography A. 2015;1412:43–51. doi: 10.1016/j.chroma.2015.07.108. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alexander, J., Gildea, L., Balog, J., et al. (2016) A novel methodology for in vivo endoscopic phenotyping of colorectal cancer based on real-time analysis of the mucosal lipidome: A prospective observational study of the iKnife. Surgical Endoscopy 1-10. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Allen JK, Davey HM, Broadhurst D, et al. High-throughput characterisation of yeast mutants for functional genomics using metabolic footprinting. Nature Biotechnology. 2003;21:692–696. doi: 10.1038/nbt823. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Allen J, Davey HM, Broadhurst D, et al. Discrimination of the modes of action of antifungal substances by use of metabolic footprinting. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 2004;70:6157–6165. doi: 10.1128/AEM.70.10.6157-6165.2004. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ashton PM, Nair S, Dallman T, et al. MinION nanopore sequencing identifies the position and structure of a bacterial antibiotic resistance island. Nature Biotechnology. 2015;33:296–300. doi: 10.1038/nbt.3103. - DOI - PubMed