An Epidemiological Introduction to Human Metabolomic Investigations

Overview

Journal Trends Endocrinol Metab

Specialty Endocrinology

Date 2023 Jul 19

PMID 37468430

Authors

Amit D Joshi

Ali Rahnavard

Priyadarshini Kachroo

Kevin M Mendez

Wayne Lawrence

Sachelly Julian-Serrano

Xinwei Hua

Harriett Fuller

Nasa Sinnott-Armstrong

Fred K Tabung

Katherine H Shutta

Laura M Raffield

Burcu F Darst

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Metabolomics holds great promise for uncovering insights around biological processes impacting disease in human epidemiological studies. Metabolites can be measured across biological samples, including plasma, serum, saliva, urine, stool, and whole organs and tissues, offering a means to characterize metabolic processes relevant to disease etiology and traits of interest. Metabolomic epidemiology studies face unique challenges, such as identifying metabolites from targeted and untargeted assays, defining standards for quality control, harmonizing results across platforms that often capture different metabolites, and developing statistical methods for high-dimensional and correlated metabolomic data. In this review, we introduce metabolomic epidemiology to the broader scientific community, discuss opportunities and challenges presented by these studies, and highlight emerging innovations that hold promise to uncover new biological insights.

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