Metabolomics studies how a change (e.g. disease, enviromental change, genetic modification) affects the metabolome of an organism; be a metabolome all the small molecules (metabolites) present in an organism as a result of the final expression of its genotype. The application fields of metabolomics include very diverse research areas such as biomedicine (e.g. search of new biomarkers associated to specific diseases like cancer, Alzheimer, CVD, neurodegenerative d. and habits), pharmacology, metabolism, environmental sciences, ecology, plant science, food science and animal science among others.
NMR spectroscopy, together with LC-MS, are the most used analytical techniques in metabolomics. Very diverse biological samples can be studied; depending on the kind of sample to study, i.e. a dissolution (body fluids, extracts, etc) or a tissue (muscle, kidney, brain, leaf, root, etc), the most appropriate NMR subtechnique will be one or other (Solution NMR, HRMAS, MRI, LC-DAD-NMR/MS).
See more about metabolomics (blog SeRMN)
