Personalized Metabolomics.

The human metabolome is the cumulative product of ingested metabolites and those produced by the body and its microbiota. Together these metabolites can dynamically report on the health and disease state of an individual, as well as their response to drug treatments and other external perturbations. Profiling metabolites in human body fluids provides an opportunity to identify biomarkers and stratify patients for personalized treatments but requires the development of high-throughput approaches compatible with large cohort and longitudinal studies. Here we review in detail sample preparation and analytical liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) methods to measure the broad chemical diversity of metabolites found in human plasma and urine.