Re:I don't get it (Score 2, Informative)

I am glad you rephrased that. All things -ome represents a collection, not a comparison to the human genome. Examples: genome - collection of genes in an organism, proteome - collection of proteins in an organism, interactome - collection of protein interactions in an organism. The metabolome is just as you described, a detailed view of concentrations of many metabolic enzymes, and chemicals. One of the many applications of this is for weight loss. Imagine examining overweight people as they lose weight and finding markers indicative of weight loss. Suddenly you could have a surrogate marker for weight loss to quickly identify successful or bogus methods of weight loss. This is a field getting much funding from big pharm for obvious reasons in our super-sized lifestyle.