Update information on drug metabolism systems--2009, part I.

The field of drug metabolism has changed dramatically in the past generation. Two of the driving forces are the advances in analytical chemistry and our understanding of the biological systems. With regard to the former, the advances in liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) are extremely impressive, and the speed of analysis has been increased even more with the recent developments in ultraperformance LC (UPLC). NMR analysis on a sub-microgram scale is not unusual, and the 2-dimensional methods are also very impressive. The biology underlying gene regulation is highly developed, and the recombinant methods have greatly facilitated progress in the field. Today it is common to design discovery and development efforts focused on critical human phenomena from the very start, with animal studies supporting the efficacy and safety efforts.