What are the differences between metabolomics and genomics and proteomics?
Are there any advantages? Since changes in metabolites are the ultimate result of altered physiological states, metabolomics falls within the central dogma of biology: DNA-to-RNA; RNA-to-Protein; and Protein-to-metabolite. However, while the genome, transcriptome and proteome are estimated to be quite large, the metabolome is relatively small by comparison. For instance, while there are estimated to be 25,000 genes, 100,000 transcripts, and more than one million proteins in humans, our research shows there are only approximately 2,400 metabolites. Rather than having to perform analyses to identify trends in large data sets, this small number of metabolites allows for us to perform standard statistical analyses which offer clear and definitive results. Further, these smaller data sets significantly decrease chances of false discovery so that, in the end, scientists can use the results to make robust and actionable decisions. 4) How do you see metabolomics evolving in the next few years?
