Metabonomics

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Metabonomic studies are used for characterization of the physiological state of a cell, tissue, organ or organism by monitoring the concentrations of a set of metabolites - the ultimate goal is to list all the metabolites and to describe their concentrations under all possible states. Earlier work on metabonomics was mostly restricted to characterization of metabolites in body fluids, however, the advent of novel non-invasive techniques (such as in vivo MR spectroscopy) now allows us to carry out metabonomic studies on virtually all organs/tissues.