Phenomics research gaining pace
7 Apr 2014
Advancing capabilities in the field of omics-based research was a major player at this year’s Analytica conference.
Analytica, one of Europe’s foremost laboratory analysis trade shows, returned to Munich last week bringing with it a host of exciting new research methods from across the analytical spectrum.
Prevalent among these methods was a focus on omics-based research - with many experts paying particular attention to advancement of phenomic, and metabonomic, study.
“Metabonomics is the new ’omic’, and if you haven’t noticed it, you will now
Prof Ian Wilson
Phenomics relates to the biological analysis of organisms phenomes as they change in relation to lifestyle and environment.
In the UK, the National Phenome Centre (NPC) - a collaboration between Imperial College London (ICL), King’s College London and analytical firms Waters and Bruker - opened in 2012 to provide a national resource for phenome sampling in order to better understand, and even predict, disease risk.
According to Professor Ian Wilson of the NPC and guest speaker at the Analytica conference, phentotyping uses data from analyses, together with various chemical, lifestyle and omics data, to better understand how genes and lifestyle interact to both determine and affect a person’s risk of disease.
Genomics research helps scientists understand why people develop certain diseases but phenomic research very much focuses on the influence of environment and lifestyle.
“The phenome is what you actually are, not what you genetically could be,” Wilson explained.
The NPC is designed to provide the space researchers need to analyse vast amounts of human sample data as a means of understanding a person’s phenomic make-up.
Co-investigator at the NPC Professor Frank Kelly said: “The ability to study the phenome on an industrial scale means we can pick apart the complex circumstances, genetic and environmental, that cause conditions like cancer, diabetes and heart disease.”
The first phase of pilot projects at the NPC included the analysis of urine and blood-derived specimens via Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC) as a means of metabolic profiling.
Several projects have since been selected to enable the utilisation of metabolic phenotyping methods and further advance the capabilites and understanding of metabonomic research.
“Metabonomics is the new ’omic’, and if you haven’t noticed it, you will now,” Wilson stated.
