“In the future, we will look back at our current list of illnessesas a gross oversimplification,” said LaBaer. “Already, in ourmodern era of molecular medicine, we are learning that whatwe have thought about as single diseases like inflammatorybowel disease or breast cancer actually include many differentmolecular variations, each with a different root cause, adifferent prognosis and a response to specific therapies. Ourlab hopes to help develop new diagnostic tools that pinpointthe specific molecular disease for each patient and directsphysicians to the right therapeutic strategy for that individual.”Perhaps there is nothing more powerful in a physician’sarsenal than early detection.
A multi-million effort, the Biodesign Institute’s Virginia G.Piper Center for Personalized Diagnostics is the focal part ofbiomarker discovery and validation in a high-throughput andhigh-quality control manner. Effective biomarkers have thepotential to improve health care and reduce costs by detectingdiseases at an earlier stage when they are more easilymanaged and by more effectively managing patients to handledisease. Currently, one out of every seven U.S. dollars isspent on health care, and 75 percent of health care costs arefor treating five chronic diseases (diabetes, congestive heartfailure, coronary artery disease, asthma and depression).
LaBaer leads a multidisciplinary team in a large-scale effortto discover and validate unique molecular fingerprints ofdisease. These fingerprints, called biomarkers, can providean early warning for those at risk of major illnesses. LaBaeris co-inventor of a technology that serves as the moleculartoolkit for his approach. The Piper Center is developingvalidated panels of biomarkers to: improve therapeutic careby ensuring that patients are treated with the right medicine;and reduce the side effects, costs, and lost time of treatingpatients with unsuccessful therapies.
Joshua LaBaer, MD, PhD
Director
Center for Personalized Diagnostics
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.
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