Rodgers concedes that comprehensive biomarker screening's acceptance in the medical community is far from universal.
Although the biomarker data is encouraging, as Schoenebaum points out, this is far from a reliable predictor.
This also kills off the idea of Plasma Renin Activity as a useful biomarker in hypertensive patients.
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Of course, any test is really just a measure of a particular biomarker at that moment in time.
Combimatrix also announced a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Air Force for the development of a biomonitor device with biomarker-based microarrays.
However, she adds that this assumes biomarker data is consistent given the FDA stance on the issue and the unmet medical need.
ADNI's anagram DIAN, the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network, based at Washington University in St Louis, is taking another approach to the biomarker question.
An using the biomarker to predict or identify cerebral malaria, he said, would not necessarily be practical, given the sudden onset of the disease.
For its part, Merck notes that its BACE inhibitor recently demonstrated a reduction in cerebral spinal fluid, or CSF, a biomarker, in a Phase I study.
Such are the issues raised by biomarker testing, which has gained a foothold in executive-wellness programs across the country as well as among some private practices.
The phthalates could be a biomarker of dietary fat consumption, which means they could have been eating a higher than typical amount of dietary fat or significantly more food.
Biophysical Corporation, the Austin, Texas--based firm that created the Biophysical250, is affiliated with Rules-Based Medicine, a lab that's received biomarker research grants from, among others, the National Cancer Institute.
Meanwhile, scientists are continuously coming up with possible biomarker tests that may predict whether a given drug is likely to be effective, or is likely to just cause side effects.
For Dr. Lundin, an experienced cancer biomarker researcher with microscopic imaging, biobanks, biostatistics and biomedical informatics expertise, his extreme microscope might just be the tool we need to help cure cancer.
What is relatively new is the zeal in medical-research circles to use extensive biomarker testing as a quantifiable measure of a person's overall health and, possibly, as a warning flag for potential health problems down the road.
Another biomarker of interest is a protein called tau, implicated in the neurofibrillary tangles -- which basically take the shape of cells and destroy them -- that build up in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, particularly in the memory center called the hippocampus.
The extreme microscope will enable a number of subjective and time-consuming tasks such as counting the number of cells staining positive for a biomarker or locating cells infected with a parasite like malaria, to be replaced by highly repeatable and robust computer vision applications.
Typically, these are motivated by a conspicuous success, a development program that was driven by the strength of beautiful molecular data, and the canonical example these days is PCSK9, a target which seems to feature an almost unprecedented alignment of human genetics, biomarker, and animal model data.
That novel approach has good intentions but also raises privacy concerns: While insurance companies generally do not offer coverage for extensive screenings, and Biophysical guarantees confidentiality, no one wants to be denied coverage years down the road for a "preexisting condition" based on an out-of-range or perhaps ambiguous biomarker result, especially if they remain asymptomatic.
Always ahead of the spa-industry curve, especially in matters health-related, Canyon Ranch recently began offering a comprehensive biomarker exam, the Biophysical250, to clients at its Tucson and Lenox, Massachusetts locations. (Its Miami Beach residential community, Canyon Ranch Living, will start offering the test in July.) For more than two decades, Canyon Ranch's physicians have principally worked as "preventive health consultants, " according to corporate medical director Mark Liponis, M.
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