Navigating the road ahead: addressing challenges for use of metabolomics in epidemiology studies

Metabolomics platforms allow for the measurement of hundreds to thousands of unique small chemical entities, as well as offer extensive coverage of metabolic markers related to obesity, diet, smoking, and other exposures of high interest to health scientists. Nevertheless, its potential use as a tool in population-based study design has not been fully explored. As the field of metabolomics continues to mature, and in part, accelerate through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) investment of ≤65 million in the Common Fund's Metabolomics Program (https://common fund.nih.gov/metabolomics/index), it is time to consider those challenges most pertinent to epidemiologic studies.