Fig. 1.
The flow of the “omics”sciences: genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics technologies in individualized medicine for cancer patients. Metabolomics deals with global metabolic profiling and its dynamic changes by monitoring as many as possible endogenous low-weight metabolites in a single analytic assay. Metabolic changes occur through a number of mechanisms, including direct genetic regulation and alterations in enzymatic and metabolic reactions. Techniques applied to metabolic profiling include NMR spectroscopy and MS. Bioinformatics, using techniques developed in the fields of computational science and statistics, remains a key element in data management and analysis of collected data sets. Identified genes, proteins, and metabolites can be assessed by tracer-based molecular imaging using MRI/MRSI and PET.