Lipidomics as a Principal Tool for Advancing Biomedical Research

Lipidomics, which targets at the construction of a comprehensive map of lipidome comprising the entire lipid pool within a cell or tissue, is currently emerging as an independent discipline at the interface of lipid biology, technology and medicine. The diversity and complexity of the biological lipidomes call for technical innovation and improvement to meet the needs of various biomedical studies. The recent wave of expansion in the field of lipidomic research is mainly attributed to advances in analytical technologies, in particular, the development of new mass spectrometric and chromatographic tools for the characterization and quantification of the wide array of diverse lipid species in the cellular lipidome. Here, we review some of the key technical advances in lipidome analysis and put forth the applications of lipidomics in addressing the biological roles of lipids in numerous disease models including the metabolic syndrome, neurodegenerative diseases and infectious diseases, as well as the increasing urgency to construct the lipidome inventory for various mammalian/organism models useful for biomedical research.