Biosignatures are an integrated set of biological indicators (also known as biomarkers) that are obtainable through assays of blood, saliva, tissue, or other biological sample. Biomarkers, in this context, are defined by the FDA as “any measurable diagnostic indicator that is used to assess the risk or presence of disease.”
Although every person may feel much the same from day to day, a profile of the biomarkers in their bloodstream can reveal a comprehensive, multilayered analysis of individual health. Biomarker levels are extremely sensitive molecule measurements, and can vary from environmental factors such as what was eaten for lunch, whether the person went to the gym that day, or even how well the person slept the night before.
Monitoring the biosignatures of a healthy person provides baseline levels of their own biomarkers, which can be normalized and compared to the levels expected when specific diseases occur. Current approaches to personalized diagnostics only rely upon an average of biomarker levels within a given population sample. Once defined, for each altered state, individual samples of baseline versus the altered state of interest must be obtained via a controlled process for empirical identification of biomarkers of interest.
To assay the biomarker levels regularly, a sensitive and accurate detection platform needs to be established. The Doc-in-a-Box would be a small countertop device that a user could store at home or have available at an urgent care center. The Doc-in-a-Box device would be reliant on protein binding agents—artificial antibodies called synbodies, aptamers, or even synthetic protein-capture agents—that would record the levels of the biomarkers present in the sample. Biomarkers of interest would need to be mapped to all potential disease-causing pathways and networks. These include extensive informatics solutions such as network reconstruction algorithms and the identification of all known disease heterogeneity. The device software would interpret the data and compare it to known fluctuations in certain biomarkers to assess the health status of the user.
Each month, innovative research from the Biodesign Institute appears in the world’s premier scientific journals. Many such studies have graced the covers of these journals, showcasing Biodesign research ranging from water remediation to nanometer-scale structures built from DNA.
Air Toxics and Children’s Asthma: A Mixed Tale of Epidemiologic Evidence
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