High-Value Disease Biomarkers

Biomarkers can implicate various health and disease characteristics, such as the level or type of exposure to an environmental factor, genetic susceptibility, markers of subclinical or clinical disease, or indicators of response to therapy. Biomarkers can be categorized as antecedent biomarkers, screening biomarkers, diagnostic biomarkers, staging biomarkers or prognostic biomarkers. Biomarkers exist in various forms, such as particular hormones (e.g., TSH in Hashimoto's Disease), metabolites (e.g., phenylalanine in urine of newborns with phenylketonuria), antibodies (e.g., anti-citrullinated protein antibodies for rheumatoid arthritis), proteins or peptides (e.g., PSA as an indicator of increased risk for prostate cancer), cell types (e.g., white blood cell counts in infection or cancer) and enzyme levels (e.g., various hepatic enzymes for liver cancer).