Advances in "omics" technologies for toxicological research

Toxicology research can be applied to evaluate potential human health risks resulting from exposure to chemicals and other factors in the environment. The tremendous advances that have been made in high-throughput "omics" technologies (e.g., genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics) are providing good tools for toxicological research. Toxicogenomics is the study of changes in gene expression, protein and metabolite profiles, and combines the tools of traditional toxicology with those of genomics and bioinformatics. In particular, identification of changes in gene expression using DNA microarrays is an important method for understanding toxicological processes and obtaining an informative biomarker. Although these technologies have emerged as a powerful tool for clarifying hazard mechanisms, there are some concerns for the application of these technologies to toxicological research. This review summarizes the impact of "omics" technologies in toxicological study, followed by a brief discussion of future research.