title: How shall we use the proteomics toolbox for biomarker discovery?
abstract: Biomarker discovery for clinical purposes is one of the major areas in which proteomics is used. However, despite considerable effort, the successes have been relatively scarce. In this perspective paper, we try to highlight and analyze the main causes for this limited success, and to suggest alternate strategies, which will avoid them, without eluding the foreseeable weak points of these strategies. Two major strategies are analyzed, namely, the switch from body fluids to cell and tissues for the initial biomarker discovery step or, if body fluids must be analyzed, the implementation of highly selective protein selection strategies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Structural Biology and Bioinformatics, Faculty of Medicine & Pharmacy Section, Faculty of Sciences, Geneva University, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lescuyer
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hochstrasser
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rabilloud
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism*; D001798:Blood Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D002555:Cerebrospinal Fluid / Q000378:metabolism*; D019295:Computational Biology; D030562:Databases, Protein; D006801:Humans; D010449:Peptide Mapping; D020543:Proteome; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D012106:Research / Q000639:trends
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D001798:Blood Proteins; D020543:Proteome