Integration of environment and disease into 'omics' analysis

Over the last decade, 'omics' technologies have been heralded as 'dream toolboxes' that will make revolutionary changes in disease prevention and treatment possible. However, these expectations have yet to be fulfilled. These promises were made and prospects predicted without full appreciation of the intrinsic complexity of common diseases and the significant contribution of environmental factors to disease risk and causation, which have hardly been considered in the omic approaches. The concept of gene-environment interaction, as well as the limitations, difficulties and urgent need to integrate environment into omics analysis are reviewed and discussed.