Since their formal introduction into the scientific community, targeted metabolomics workflows have carved out an essential role in clinical laboratory testing. As a result, clinical applications of these targeted metabolomic analyses are innumerable and include diagnosing and monitoring diseases, detecting metabolites of therapeutic drugs and drugs of abuse, identifying inborn errors of metabolism, and quantitating various clinical biomarkers.
The objective of clinical metabolomics is to assess and predict a subject's health and disease risk by determining ‘metabolic signatures’ in body fluids (plasma, urine, saliva, cerebrospinal fluid, etc) or tissues, which are influenced by genetics, epigenetics, dietary patterns, environmental parameters and behaviour. These metabolic signatures comprise a group or a combination of affected metabolites.
Our specialty clinical laboratory (CLIA/NATA ISO15189 certification) pioneers a ‘systems’ approach that supports healthcare providers in health and well-being pathology testing. This includes – but is not limited to – quantitative metabolic profiling of organic acids, amino acids, total fatty acids, short-chain fatty acids, steroid hormones, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and its metabolites, neurotransmitters, metal testing, perfluorinated compounds etc. Such quantitative measurements that are accurate, precise, repeatable and reproducible assist general practitioners and other healthcare providers in identifying the underlying cause of illness; as well as providing tools for the prevention of disease and premature/healthy ageing.