BOL

Metabolomics is the comprehensive and quantitative analysis of multiple metabolites in biological samples. 

Metabolome is the complete set of small-molecule metabolites found within a single biological
system

Targeted metabolomics aims to quantify a set of predefined metabolites in a sample. 

Untargeted (sometimes termed ‘global’) metabolomics aims to  quantitatively measure the levels of all metabolites. 

Metabolomics Biomarkers may be useful for four main purposes:

1) controlled trials
2) dietary intakes in observational studies
3) explaining the biological effects of the diet
4) characterizing a specific genotype or  phenotype

Pipeline of Metabolomics study:

http://www.nutrigenomics.biz/downloadattachment/33374/Brown.pdf

http://journals.sfu.ca/rncsb/index.php/csbj/article/view/csbj.201301004/205

Alignment tools for this include:
mz-Mine 
XCMS (R code script), and  Metalign

Metabolomics databases for searching the potential candidates biomarkers:
- hmdb-http://www.hmdb.ca
- metlin -http://metlin.scripps.edu/metabo_search_alt2.php
- Metfusion: http://msbi.ipb-halle.de/MetFusion/
- Chemspider-http://www.chemspider.com/