What's next in 'omics: The metabolome

The youngest sibling in the family of 'omics fields is growing up. Maturing right behind genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics, metabolomics is the comprehensive analysis of small molecule metabolites. Since most metabolites are generated by enzymatic proteins that result from gene expression, and metabolites give organisms their biochemical characteristics, the metabolome links genotype with phenotype. Metabolomics is still developing, though, as vendors adapt separation and detection instruments to meet its challenges and the research community interprets and integrates the complex data they are acquiring.