Biomarkers – Past and Future
Siegfried Neumann · 2015
This chapter illuminates the technologic status of biomarkers through selected examples, for example, with a main focus on oncology, and tries to anticipate where the developments on biomarkers might go in the coming years. Biomarkers can serve for a variety of crucial medical objectives, both in preclinical research and clinical development of drugs as well as in diagnosis, treatment decisions, and prognosis in clinical practice. Molecular biology revolutionizes biomedicine in ongoing activities. It helps to understand biological defects, elaborate new drug targets and candidates for new biological entities as candidate drugs, and elucidates molecular diversity as a source for novel biomarkers. On the cellular level, all stages in the regulatory hierarchy of molecules can serve for discovery of biomarkers. Reimbursements for biomarker assays follow sociomedical priorities and need thorough proof of an attractive benefit/cost ratio in healthcare.