Lipidomics

Lipids are important components of biological membranes as well as lipid particles like lipoproteins. Lipids are involved in a variety of cellular processes, such as cellular walls, membrane matrices, signalling, and energy storage. There are tens to hundreds of thousands of molecular species in cellular lipids, with concentrations ranging from amol to nmol/mg protein. Cellular lipids are also extremely dynamic, changing constantly in response to physiological, pathological, and environmental factors. Lipids are divided into a few distinct classes and subcategories. Lipidomics is the study of cellular lipid pathways and networks at a large scale in biological systems. The term "lipidome" refers to a cell's, tissue's, organism's, or ecosystem's entire lipid profile. It is a subset of the "metabolome," which also comprises the three other major groups of biological molecules: proteins/amino acids, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids. Lipidomics is a relatively new discipline that uses analytical chemistry concepts and technical instruments, primarily mass spectrometry, to study cellular lipids on a massive scale. Techniques have evolved significantly in recent years, and fresh applications of lipidomics in the biomedical sciences have developed.