In the post-genomics era, the use of methodologies that enable transcriptomic,proteomic and metabolomic data to be analysed in detail have revolutionized biological investigations. One of the major advantages with metabolomics investigations compared to traditional target metabolite analysis is that metabolomics data can give an unbiased view of changes in metabolism during environmental,genetic or developmental changes. Instead of tracking only a few metabolites, changes in relative amounts in 300 to 1000 or even more metabolites can be recorded and analysed, covering all major metabolic pathways.

This development has accentuated the need to apply and further develop chemometric methodology.