The emergent role of metabolic phenotyping in dynamic patient stratification

The role that metabolic phenotyping can increasingly play in patient stratification and personalised medicine is discussed. The background to the general approach, comprehensive and simultaneous analysis of small-molecule metabolites in biofluids, tissues and tissue extracts combined with suitable multivariate statistical models, is summarised. The main techniques used (NMR and mass spectrometry) are cited, and the implementation of dedicated phenome centres is explained. Finally, the advantages and limitations, opportunities and drawbacks of the approach are discussed.