Metabolomics applications of FT-ICR mass spectrometry.

Metabolomics, also known as Metabolic Profiling, is an emerging discipline under the umbrella concept of systems biology. The goal of metabolomics is to know and understand the concentrations and fluxes of endogenous metabolites within a living biological system under study. General tools are being developed for the rapid measurement of many metabolites in a single experiment, most of which are mass spectrometric methods. FT-ICR has unique advantages, as a mass spectrometric method, in this regard. Applications of FT-ICR to metabolomics analyses will be discussed and reviewed in the context of the single publication currently available. 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.