I've been asked to introduce myself--and it's at moments like this that words tend to fail you, even if you use them for a living. I'm a freelance writer based in the U.K., with a focus on biotechnology and business. I've loved science as long as I've known what it is, and loved writing as long as I could hold a crayon, so writing the FierceBiomarkers newsletter just about hits the spot for me.
The field of biomarkers is such an exciting area of science and medicine--they can be used and classified in many different ways. Biomarkers can be predictive or prognostic, and can be used in diagnosis, disease staging, monitoring treatment response and making decisions on drug development. They can mark the natural history of a disease or the activity of a drug. They can be used as surrogate markers in clinical trials. Biomarkers can be classified as imaging or molecular, and can include genes, nucleic acids, peptides, proteins, lipids or small molecules.
As we move into an era of personalized medicine, biomarkers will help us to select those people who will respond the best to a treatment, or who are the least likely to suffer from side effects. This could improve people's quality of life through giving access to better treatment or simply avoiding ineffective or even harmful drugs. Selecting responders could also cut costs for healthcare providers and speed up drug development for biopharma companies. The downside to personalized medicine is of course those patients whose disease does not respond, but continued research could open up avenues even for these unmet needs.
My aim with the newsletter is to keep you up to date with all the latest developments and collaborations, all the news and trends. Email me if you have any news, suggestions or feedback, and follow me (@suzannewriter) on Twitter. - Suzanne Elvidge