Departments of Biological Sciences and Computing Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9, Canada
Leo L. Cheng
Department of Pathology, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
Valérie Copié
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59715, USA
Arthur S. Edison
Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Hamid R. Eghbalnia
Department of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, UConn Health, Farmington, CT 06030-3305, USA
Jeffrey C. Hoch
Department of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, UConn Health, Farmington, CT 06030-3305, USA
Goncalo J. Gouveia
Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Wimal Pathmasiri
Nutrition Research Institute, Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Robert Powers
Department of Chemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-0304, USA
Tracey B. Schock
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Chemical Sciences Division, Charleston, SC 29412, USA
Lloyd W. Sumner
Interdisciplinary Plant Group, MU Metabolomics Center, Bond Life Sciences Center, Department of Biochemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
Mario Uchimiya
Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Metabolomics investigates global metabolic alterations associated with chemical, biological, physiological, or pathological processes. These metabolic changes are measured with various analytical platforms including liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). While LC-MS methods are becoming increasingly popular in the field of metabolomics (accounting for more than 70% of published metabolomics studies to date), there are considerable benefits and advantages to NMR-based methods for metabolomic studies. In fact, according to PubMed, more than 926 papers on NMR-based metabolomics were published in 2021—the most ever published in a given year. This suggests that NMR-based metabolomics continues to grow and has plenty to offer to the scientific community. This perspective outlines the growing applications of NMR in metabolomics, highlights several recent advances in NMR technologies for metabolomics, and provides a roadmap for future advancements.
