One promising application for lipidomics is to improve epidemiology studies looking at the links between lifestyle factors and disease risk. For instance, much of our current dietary advice is based on studies asking people what they have eaten – such as food frequency questionnaires or diaries. But these can be notoriously misleading.
“Even when carried out in the most careful way, those approaches are always very subjective,” says Koulman. “But by measuring the levels of lipids in the circulation, it becomes possible to assess a person’s diet in a more objective way – and then see if there’s a link between diet and disease risk.” For example, one recent study suggests that the higher the levels of lipid biomarkers of dairy fat consumption in the circulation, the lower a person’s risk of type 2 diabetes.