UCTV Seminars

description:

The sequencing of the human genome, microbiome and its variation and mapping of the context specific proteome in humans have begun to shed light on the genomic and proteomic basis of disease. Further, these approaches anchor the disease phenotypes on genotypes, provide insights into the genetic basis of diseases and capture to a large extent the heritable factors associated with physiology and pathophysiology. However, we need fingerprints of human physiology and pathophysiology that are indicators of our interaction with the living environment, and we posit that the human metabolome offers the best opportunity to identify these fingerprints. Further, upon treatment with drugs, each human or at least a class of humans, responds in unique ways, and once again the metabolome changes to reflect the pharmacological intervention on physiology. We characterize this fingerprint as the "human metabotype".