Diving through the "-omics": the case for deep phenotyping and systems epidemiology.

Area of Science:

• Integrative omics sciences
• Population health research
• Systems epidemiology

Background:

• High-throughput technologies enable broad and deep study of health and disease at population levels.
• The
• -omics sciences
• field is rapidly evolving.
• Chronic kidney disease (CKD) pathophysiology requires deeper understanding.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) of metabolic traits in human urine.
• To provide new insights into the functional background of chronic kidney disease.
• To propose systems epidemiology as a novel approach for studying human pathophysiology.

Main Methods:

• Integration of genomics and metabolomics data.
• Genome-wide association study (GWAS) of metabolic traits.
• Analysis of population-level omic-metrics.

Main Results:

• Successful linkage of genomics and metabolomics.
• Identification of novel insights into CKD functional background.
• Demonstration of the utility of integrated omics data.

Conclusions:

• Systems epidemiology offers a novel approach to study complex human pathophysiology.
• Integration of diverse omic-metrics can identify new trans-omic biomarkers.
• This study provides a foundation for future population-level omics research in disease.