Murdoch University’s Australian National Phenome Center (ANPC) working with scientists at Imperial College London have developed a new integrative strategy for identifying biomarkers of health and disease.

These biological markers, or biomarkers, are signals in our bodies that help to diagnose diseases early and effectively assess, target and develop treatments.

“The new approach we’ve developed to biomarker discovery is efficient, cost-effective and more comprehensive than any existing techniques,” said Professor Jeremy Nicholson, Director of the Australian National Phenome Center.

The approach uses metabolic profiling—the analysis of biological tissue and fluid to uncover the specific interactions of genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors at a molecular level with advanced statistics to extract important diagnostic information.

“Metabolic profiling of biological samples provides important insights into multiple physiological and pathological processes, but to date has been hindered by a lack of automated and standardized methods for identifying disease biomarkers,” said Professor Nicholson.

The study was published in the journal Nature Protocols today.

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