I have recently heard the word "Metabonomics" as a new tool for drug discovery. Can someone elaborate and explain what are "Metabonomics"?

Its very very closley related to metabolomics, often the words are used interchangebly.



Omics is the study of all of something, genomics - all the genes, proteomics - all the proteins, transcripomics - all the transcripts. Metabolomics is about all the metabolites, all the small molecules in the cell, the sugars the signalling molecules, the energy intermediates, the waste products etc.



The effect of drugs can be investigated by comparing the metabolome with and without the drug present - this is sometimes called metabonomics. Another specific meaning is looking at the metabolities that the cell excretes. However I'd say that at the moment it's an emerging term.



A good place to start reading more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolomics