The promise of imaging biomarkers
A new Thomson Reuters white paper provides a snapshot of imaging biomarkers in research and clinical use, examining challenges and identifying promising avenues for progress.
Biochemical and molecular markers have revolutionized medicine and drug development, giving clinicians and researchers the opportunity to infer biological states in patients and in response to drug interventions. Imaging biomarkers are now coming into their own, offering earlier detection of some diseases than molecular markers, and enabling practitioners to see into the body without the need for invasive procedures. They are also enabling researchers to see in detail for the first time how candidate drugs are behaving: from determining the percentage of receptors occupied by a drug on target cells, to looking at a drug’s ability to cross the blood/brain barrier. This in turn can save time and money at the drug development lab bench. It is no exaggeration to say that imaging biomarkers are promising to revolutionize basic research, drug development, and treatment.
The new white paper from Thomson Reuters—The promise of imaging biomarkers—discusses challenges to imaging biomarkers reaching their full potential. These include standardization, a regulatory policy in its infancy, and the sheer volume of biomarker data. The paper also describes the Thomson Reuters approach to developing BIOMARKERcenter, a comprehensive database of biomarkers that covers all key biomarker uses at every stage of drug R&D.
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