Introduction to Metabolomics

We provide an overview of metabolomics in its current practices, including sample processing, major techniques, example applications, and useful resources to the readership, as described in detail in the various chapters of the handbook. In our view, metabolomics can be defined as “a systematic interrogation of the metabolome in terms of metabolite concentration, structure, and transformation pathways.” We emphasize the use of stable isotope tracing methodologies both in vitro and in vivo. We further provide a brief introduction to some concepts of flux analyses at steady state and nonsteady state.