Precision medicine is a new medical approach which considers
both
population characteristics and individual variability to provide customized
healthcare. The transition from traditional reactive medicine to personalized
medicine is based on a biomarker-driven process and a deep knowledge
of biological mechanisms according to which the development of diseases
occurs. In this context, the advancements in high-throughput omics
technologies represent a unique opportunity to discover novel biomarkers
and to provide an unbiased picture of the biological system. One of
the medical fields in which omics science has started to be recently
applied is that of ophthalmology. Ocular diseases are very common,
and some of them could be highly disabling, thus leading to vision
loss and blindness. The pathogenic mechanism of most ocular diseases
may be dependent on various genetic and environmental factors, whose
effect has not been yet completely understood. In this context, large-scale
omics approaches are fundamental to have a comprehensive evaluation
of the whole system and represent an essential tool for the development
of novel therapies. This Review summarizes the recent advancements
in omics science applied to ophthalmology in the last ten years, in
particular by focusing on proteomics, metabolomics and lipidomics
applications from an analytical perspective. The role of high-efficiency
separation techniques coupled to (high-resolution) mass spectrometry
((HR)MS) is also discussed, as well as the impact of sampling, sample
preparation and data analysis as integrating parts of the analytical
workflow.