Researchers, health care professionals, academics, industry representatives and others interested in the advanced diagnostic and disease treatment options possible from the analysis of metabolites (the byproducts of cellular metabolism) will want to attend Metabolomics 2012, the eighth annual meeting of the Metabolomics Society, in Washington, D.C., from June 24-28, 2012. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is hosting the event along with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Metabolomics Society.

Cell activities such as energy transfer and cell-to-cell communications often are defined by metabolites, small molecules such as lipid, sugar and amino acids that are the byproducts of metabolism. Metabolomics, the study of metabolites from biological samples such as urine, blood and tissues, is growing increasingly important as a scientific and medical discipline because it can provide a “physiological snapshot” of living cells and the organism in which they exist. Data from a metabolomics profile can be used to help identify and explain disease states, genetic disorders and impacts from environmental factors.

Metabolomics 2012 will feature workshops and parallel sessions covering the broad range of biological and technological metabolomics topics, as well as provide ample opportunities for networking. Plenary speakers are scheduled to present the current state-of-the-art in a number of metabolomics areas, including: Frank Gonzalez of the National Cancer Institute on personalized medicine and biomarker development, Mark Viant of the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom) on applications in environmental and human research, Rasmus Bro of Copenhagen University (Denmark) on chemometrics (extracting information from chemical systems by data-driven means), and Alisdair Fernie of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology (Germany) on metabolomics in plant biology.

For more information on Metabolomics 2012 or to register online for the conference, go to www.metabolomics2012.org.