Metabolic profiling in nutrition and metabolic disorders

Nutrients exert potent effects on metabolism through a variety of regulatory mechanisms, resulting in local and systemic changes in metabolite levels. Numerous studies have focused on mechanisms by which nutrients and disease states regulate metabolism at the gene or protein levels using genomic and proteomic approaches, respectively. However, few studies have investigated nutritional regulation of the whole metabolome. Thus, metabolomic approaches have recently emerged to complement the genomics and proteomics research and to help identify biologically meaningful metabolites and metabolic networks that control cellular responses to genetic and environmental factors, including diet, and to identify metabolic diseases that are influenced by genetic and dietary factors. These large-scale studies expedite our ability to develop targeted treatments. The goal of this symposium was to provide a forum to introduce the metabolomics field to nutrition researchers. An overview of the state-of-t