Over the last 20 years there have been rapid advances in Genomics, Proteomics, and other Omics technologies with both the human genome and proteome now being at >90% completion at high stringency [1]. At the same time there has been a paradigm shift in medical treatment from the traditional “one size fits all” approach, where all patients receive the same standardised treatment for a particular disease, to a personalised/precision medicine (PM) approach in which treatment is tailored to a specific individual based on an understanding of their individual systems biology (comprehensive in-depth monitoring of genes, proteins, metabolites) and disease related pathways, lifestyle and environmental factors [2]. The success of PM is closely linked to the discovery and validation of sensitive and specific protein and peptide disease-related biomarkers, and subsequent development of rapid, robust, sensitive and specific clinical assays for detection and surveillance. The omics pipeline (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, interactomics and microbiomics) can provide an overall systems biology perspective of health and disease, leading to the identification of potential biomarkers for disease detection and surveillance and the identification of novel drug targets [3]. It will also help reveal proteins function in both health and disease [4].

In this presentation I will address the key components of the omics toolbox and emerging Omics technologies and illustrate how they have advanced our knowledge of the biology underlying health and disease giving a solid foundation for the advancement of PM for cancer.