Open Access: Metabolomics

Metabolomics is that the study of identification and quantification of small molecules present in biological systems. Metabolomics analyses of biological samples involves getting a metabolic profile using analytical technologies and analyzing the info generated by these platforms to realize insight into the system’s metabolic state. It presents an overview of the software tools and methods used for the analysis, visualization and interpretation of metabolomics data. Specifically, this text details metabolomics workflows, metadata, standards in metabolomics, processing and workflow softwares, metabolomics experiments repositories, metabolomics databases and statistical analysis methods for analyzing metabolomics data. Metabolomics was last introduced among the Omics to research low relative molecular mass compounds in several biological systems and fields of research. Metabolomics analysis are often categorized into two approaches, targeted and untargeted metabolomics. In targeted metabolomics, the metabolites selected for quantification are known a priori, as defined by the biological problem and should represent specific pathway or class of molecules. Untargeted metabolomics, on the opposite hand, is employed to work out as many metabolites as possible and involves both metabolites quantification and their identification. The aim is to review the steps in metabolomics analysis, starting with sample preparation through metabolite identification and data interpretation, and to debate , as well, the applications of metabolomics in different fields.