Standardizing GC–MS metabolomics

Metabolomics being the most recently introduced “omic” analytical platform is currently at its development phase. For the metabolomics to be broadly deployed to biological and clinical research and practice, issues regarding data validation and reproducibility need to be resolved. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) will remain integral part of the metabolomics laboratory. In this paper, the sources of biases in GC–MS metabolomics are discussed and experimental evidence for their occurrence and impact on the final results is provided. When available, methods to correct or account for these biases are presented towards the standardization of a systematic methodology for quantitative GC–MS metabolomics.