Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Metabolomics enables the comprehensive profiling of cellular metabolites at the systems level, thereby providing a direct readout of biochemical activity that can be correlated with phenotype and used to identify therapeutic targets. Although several challenges remain to be addressed, emerging mass spectrometric and bioinformatic technologies have already proven to be effective tools for diagnostics and for providing insights into cell metabolism.