Metabolomics:  The Greatest Omics of Them All?

The metabolome can be thought of as a looking glass, which if looked through can show information concerning the physiological, developmental, and pathological status of a biological system. Success in metabolomics requires that scientists reverse a general paradigm of method development in analytical science--the improved sensitivity and selectivity/specificity in recognition of current instrumental limitations--to employ nonselective universal procedures where specificity is achieved temporarily rather than spatially by extension of existing multidimensional platforms.