[A multi-omics approach to investigate the etiology of non-communicable diseases: recent advance and applications].

One of the main aims of chronic disease epidemiology is to explore the etiological factors of diseases. Multi-omics includes all genes (genomics), extensive changes in gene expression (epigenetics), ribonucleic acids (transcriptomics), and proteins (proteomics) generated during the process of DNA replication, transcription, translation, and post-translational modification, as well as small molecule metabolites downstream (metabolomics). Multi-omics platforms provide technical support for assessing omics biomarkers including genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics, while systems epidemiology provides theoretical and methodological support for using multi-omics to conduct etiological research. Multi-omics research not only reveals the interaction network between molecules, but also contributes to causal inference from the molecular level. With the global exponential growth of publicly available data, analysis platforms, and consortia, resources for multi-omics research will become more abundant, and the depth and breadth of research will be greatly expanded. This article will review the applications of multi-omics approach in the etiologic research on non-communicable diseases, representative research in the past three years, opportunities and challenges for large-scale cohort studies, advantages and issues of multi-omics research in the Chinese population, and future perspectives.