Metabolite concentrations in cellular systems are very much dependent on the physiological,
environmental, and genetic status of an organism and are regarded as the ultimate result
of cellular regulation, resulting in the visible phenotypes. Therefore, the comprehensive
analysis of metabolite levels and fluxes renders a suitable tool for assessing the degree of
perturbation in biological systems. Lessons derived from development of other OMICS areas
(genomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics) have shown that large-scale comparisons
and interpretations will require the re-use of data over long periods of time and by multiple
laboratories with different expertise and backgrounds. Reaching this goal will require
standardization of reporting structures of metabolomic studies for journal publication purposes,
for regulatory deposition, and for database dissemination. An initiative by the
Metabolomics Society is presented that aims to define important aspects of metabolomic
workflows. These include biological study designs, chemical analysis, and data processing,
as well as the ontologies that are necessary in this framework.
This paper is part of the special issue of OMICS on data standards.
