Discovery of protein biomarkers for renal diseases

Animal models and human studies have been useful in dissecting the molecular mechanisms of renal disease and finding new disease targets; however, translation of these findings to new clinical therapeutics remains challenging. Difficulties with detecting early disease, measuring drug effectiveness, and the daunting cost of clinical trials hampers the development of new therapeutics for renal diseases. Many existing laboratory tests were discovered because of inspired recognition that a particular protein might prove useful in clinical practice. New unbiased genomic and proteomic techniques identify many constituents present in biologic samples and thus may greatly accelerate biomarker research. This review focuses on the steps needed to develop new biomarkers that are useful in laboratory and clinical investigations, with particular focus on new proteomic screening technologies. New biomarkers will speed the laboratory and clinical development of new treatments for renal diseases through mechanistic insights, diagnoses that are more refined, early detection, and enhanced proof of concept testing.