Living To 150

Metabolites are substances formed either during, or at the end of, one process of our metabolism. There provide a valuable key to how our body is functioning, or how it responds to introduced elements, such as drugs or food.

There are thousands of the metabolites being formed every minute, so analysing them is a mammoth task. But with computer power doubling every year, this analysis will soon become a reality.

Applications Of Metabolomics

Metabolites in the blood give strong clues to how our body is behaving both generally, and in reacting to foods and drugs we might be taking.

Applications include:

1. Early detection of disease.
2. Nutritional treatment to address an individual’s precise internal site.
3. Early detection of reactions to a new drug. This will help to avoid side effects, as well as making research much cheaper as blind alleys can be abandoned earlier.

The Future

Metabolomics is just one way in which rapidly increasing computer power and biology will combine to make medicine unrecognisable in just 10 or 20 years.

The Human Metabolome Project

Metabolomics - Wikipedia