ABSTRACT
Emerging technologies have enabled scientists to get an unprecedented amount of information about basic cellular processes. This new information is already being put to use in improving diagnostic tests and therapeutic agents in clinical medicine. In the future, it promises to improve our ability to measure and predict the effects of chemicals on human health. Collectively, these technologies have been termed the “omics” because this sufx is added to roots describing the particular part of the cellular machinery being studied: “toxicogenomics” refers to the responses of genes to toxic exposures, “proteomics” indicates the responses of proteins, and “metabolomics” refers to the responses of metabolites.
