Biomarkers discovery challenges

Why is it important to accept this challenge A current and near future priority of biomedical research is to understand and treat complex diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer that have only recently become prevalent sources of morbidity and mortality in human populations. A major goal of systems biology and proteomics is to identify and quantify specific proteins for use as predictive diagnostic and/or prognostic biomarkers of disease [32]. Biomarker discovery is... 

Unlike with kidney injury biomarkers, where between 2008 and 2010 the FDA, the EMA and the PMDA qualified the use of seven urinary biomarkers for GLP rat studies to support the safe conduct of early phase clinical trials, GI injury is stiU in its infancy with regard to discovery, development, and implementation of biomarkers. The challenges of developing biomarkers are even greater when the complexity of GI injuries is looked upon more carefully. These injuries include, but are not limited to, nausea, vomiting, ulceration, inflammation of the intestine, mucositis, altered fecal output, abdominal pain/discomfort, GI bleeding, and/or perforation which can be inflicted by various dmg classes, chemical classes, or therapeutic areas. 

The process for a biomarker discovery process is very similar regardless of the type of molecule that one is looking for. Here, detailed descriptions of the challenges in the biomarker discovery pathway, which have to be kept in mind, are outlined. This section will also provide some information about how these challenges can be met by the careful researcher. 

The important messages to remember from this chapter are to think carefully about the discovery experiment first. Put together a solid team with the skills necessary to accomplish the project. Think carefully about the question that is being asked Is it reasonable and achievable Plan the project well and listen to potential problems and challenges so that the question can be answered satisfactorily. Focus on the question being asked and do not get sidetracked until there is an answer to the initial question there is always an opportunity to investigate the data further after the question has been answered. Simplify each step in the biomarker discovery experiment as much as possible so that the data analysis results are as clear as possible. 

Thus, Foodomics can help to solve some of the new challenges that modem food safety, quality, and traceability have to face. These challenges encompass the multiple analyses of contaminants, allergens, the establishment of more-powerful analytical methodologies to guarantee food origin, trace-ability and quality, the discovery of biomarkers to detect unsafe products or the capability to detect food safety problems before they grow and affect more consumers, etc. 

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