One of the goals of systems biology, and of many scientists, is to reengineer biological networks to improve health in humans or enable organisms such as microbes to do things like eat oil spills or generate renewable energy. This finding advances that effort, because researchers now know they need to look within coding regions of genes to find all the molecular parts involved in cellular function. In essence, they now know how to look for, and how to find, additional breakers between the electrical box and the light bulb.
In order to address this challenge, the Washington State Life Sciences Discovery Fund has awarded ISB Associate Professor Dan Martin, MD, nearly $800,000 to develop new methods for rapid identification and validation of biomarkers.
A barrier to the realization of that dream revolves around molecular magnets that grab and hold biomarkers from within the virtual soup of biological material that is human blood. Those magnets, called antibodies, attach to specific biomarkers. If an antibody is not available that captures the targeted biomarker, then researchers and physicians cannot measure that biomarker in the blood. The problem is that high-quality antibodies are very expensive to make, and there are thousands of potential biomarkers that need to be identified.
Martin and members of his lab are hoping to increase the speed and decrease the cost of making antibodies that will be used in combination with mass spectrometry analysis for biomarker validation.
"I've got hundreds of potential prostate cancer biomarkers right now that I can't validate or reject because I can't get the right antibodies, even if I could afford them," Martin said. "I don't have a crystal ball to pick amongst them. We have to develop a method to quickly sort through all these targets to find those that could help save lives."
"ISB's systems approach both enables and drives us to develop new technologies, or new uses for existing technologies, to answer biological questions that couldn't be answered in the past," he added.
While Martin works specifically with prostate cancer, the technology he and his colleagues
LIFE SCIENCES DISCOVERY FUND SUPPORTS ISB BIOMARKER RESEARCH
One of the great potential advances in healthcare is the identification of blood-borne biomarkers that signal the onset of disease long before symptoms develop. Brain, pancreas and other cancers prove so deadly in part because symptoms typically develop after the disease has progressed beyond the point
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