Metabolomics, the study of metabolism at a global level, is a rapidly growing field that promises to provide new insights about disease mechanisms and drug effects. New technologies have been developed that enable measurements of hundreds of chemicals that report on disease processes and that can lead to the development of biomarkers that can predict disease or treatment outcomes. Despite early promise, challenges remain before the full potential of metabolomics can be realized. Metabolomics was highlighted as an important area to develop under the NIH roadmap initiative in 2003 and the recent highlighting of metabolomics under the Common Fund initiative within NIH all points to the important role that metabolomics can play within the medical field. The Metabolomics Society was established in 2004 and has played a key role in promoting the field of metabolomics. The society has hosted a series of successful meetings and workshops nationally and internationally that enabled researchers to meet, share progress, and identify bottlenecks limiting rapid progress. In addition, the meetings enabled the training of scientists who wished to join the field. Metabolomics 2012 is the 8th annual meeting for the society which will take place in Washington DC. The Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel at 2660 Woodley Road NW, Washington, DC has been selected as site of the 8th annual meeting of the Metabolomics Society and a contractual agreement was established to host the meeting on June 25-28, 2012. For this meeting, we plan to bring together researchers from academia, government agencies, not for profit and for profit organizations to discuss developments in metabolomics technologies and applications and future needs. The timing and location of the meeting will allow the metabolomics community to provide feedback to NIH staff involved in shaping programs under the NIH Common Fund initiatives for scaling up metabolomics capabilities. Key for the mission of the Metabolomics Society is to educate and train young scientists in the field of metabolomics, hence enabling graduate students and postdoctoral research fellows to attend the annual meetings is important and vital for the growth of the field. As in previous years we will seek funding from different sources to support the meeting but in this application to NIH institutes we seek support to cover part of cost of travel and accommodation for invited speakers, students and post doctorate fellows.
Metabolomics, the study of metabolism at a global level, is a rapidly growing field that promises to provide new insights about disease mechanisms and drug effects. The 2012 Metabolomics Society meeting will bring together researchers from academia, government agencies, not for profit and for profit organizations to discuss developments in metabolomics technologies, bottlenecks, applications and future needs. This meeting will also be used to provide education and training to young scientists in order to ensure the continued growth of this important field.
