Background for Medical Doctors

The primary issues of concern at the start of a biomarker discovery experiment are the clinical questions. It is worth the time to stop and think for a moment about the biochemistry of disease and the chemistry of potential biomarkers associated with disease. There are very significant chemical differences between classes of biomolecules and this affects the design and experimental protocols that are used to find, separate, identify, and assay each compound that may be of interest. 

The tools used to detect biomarkers are also varied, and it might not be possible to adapt instrumentation from one purpose to another. This is also something to discuss with a biochemist, chemist before the research plan is decided. Even with these limitations, well-designed and executed biomarker projects have been very successful in the past and will continue to be more successful in the future. 

The key to this success is a multidisciplinary approach to biomarker discovery where the different members of a team communicate well and try to understand what will and will not work and what is and is not possible before planning and starting the project. 

---