Work

Progress of metabolomics‐centric multi‐omics research in medicine

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Metabolomics reveals molecular changes at the metabolic level during biological processes. Recent advancements, particularly through integration with other omics and artificial intelligence (AI), are advancing metabolic data analysis and multi-omics interpretation. This review introduces a "metabolomics-centric" paradigm as a conceptual framework for multi-omics integration, positioning metabolic readouts as the functional anchor for interpreting genotype-phenotype relationships. It also chronicles the evolution and medical applications of integration technologies. Our discussion first traces the field's evolution from bulk to single-cell and spatial methodologies, next surveys integration strategies to uncover mechanistic insights, and finally examines how AI-driven multimodal data integration and AI-optimized metabolomics workflows tackle persistent biological and computational challenges. Looking forward, this review identifies the AI virtual cell as a pivotal future direction for metabolomics-based multi-omics integration, calling for increased attention to its development to simulate dynamic molecular phenotypic networks within a multi-omics context.

Source: iMetaOmics.

DOI: 10.1002/imo2.70096