Lipidomics in drug and biomarker development.

Lipidomics is an emerging field in biomedical research. It aims at systems scale detection, characterisation and quantification of lipids. Lipidomics is developing as an independent discipline at the interface of lipid biology, technology and medicine. Technological advancements, most notably in liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry, allow sensitive and highly selective analysis of lipids with diverse chemical composition and in complex mixtures. Comparative analysis of such lipid profiles, which stem from two physiologically linked conditions is particularly powerful for applications in drug and biomarker development. First, it leads to the identification of pathways related to lipid metabolism. Second, multiparameter lipid biomarkers will provide better diagnostics in preclinical trials using model organisms and in clinical presentations in humans.