Lipidomics in the study of lipid metabolism: Current perspectives in the omic sciences

• Lipidomics characterizes the composition of intact lipid molecular species in biological systems.
• Strategies are described for analysis of lipid and recent applications of lipidomics.
• Advances in lipid detection and analysis by a variety of mass spectrometry.
• The potential usefulness of lipidomics both to generate biomarkers of disease and probe signalling and metabolic processes.

The advances in systems biology and in the development of new technological tools in analysis, as well as in the omic sciences, among which, metabolomics, and more specifically, lipidomics, have made it possible to investigate the structural and functional complexity of lipids in biological systems. Liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry are the analytical approaches most used in lipid research. Biomedical research, with the development of specific markers for lipids, together with new software development, have both enabled the early diagnosis of several illnesses, besides the evaluation of drug activity and treatment efficacy.