A discussion is provided of increased interest among biotechnology companies and academics in the study of metabolomics (cataloging collections of biochemical compounds using mass spectrometers and high-cost nuclear magnetic resonance NMR machines). Researchers are trying to collect an objective sample of metabolites that can at as a snapshot of the physiology of an organism, and they want to know how they respond when organisms are confronted by drugs, disease, or stress. The global biochemistry effort, says an expert, would allow researchers to distinguish between an individual who is healthy and someone who has--or might develop--a disease. The researchers begin by measuring as many metabolites as possible in samples from different patient populations. They compare the profiles and look for patterns (molecules with concentrations that deviate in a disease). They can use the molecules to develop diagnostic tools or to discern a more in-depth understanding of the mechanism of the disease. Researchers at Metabolon are working in that way on Alzheimers disease and other neurological disorders. At Metabometrix, a method has been developed for predicting cardiovascular disease. Among topics covered are the reasons that metabolomics appear to be useful, since they are the products of genes and proteins; a call for project proposals by the National Institutes of Health; work on the whole Arabidopsis genome; work by Canadian researchers on the human metabolome; companies that collect metabolic data; and a grant by NIH to Paradigm Genetics for development of programs that blend different data streams.