Research Profiles - Medicine gets personal: the promise of biomarkers

Medical science has delivered cures for diseases that used to seem unstoppable. From antibiotics to cancer therapies, the array of treatments that are now available to improve and prolong lives would astound the world's first healers. Yet much of the practice of medicine remains imprecise.

In most cases, doctors are limited to providing treatments that assume everyone is the same. Cancer patients receive general therapies, without knowing whether a particular drug or regime will help or hurt them. Family histories can help predict possible outcomes, but they don't provide definitive answers.

The discovery and harnessing of biomarkers heralds a new frontier in health care, bringing with it the promise of more certainty and the prospect of personalized medicine. That's why CIHR is investing in biomarker research.

Biomarkers – or biological markers – are substances, such as genes or proteins, which scientists measure objectively. They can indicate the presence of a disease or infection, a change in the functioning of an organ, the risk or progression of an illness, or a response to a drug. Biomarkers can also indicate a disease's susceptibility to treatment, or an individual's exposure to toxins. Across Canada, CIHR-supported researchers are discovering new biomarkers and developing innovative uses for these revolutionary tools.

In Vancouver and Toronto, Drs. Kirk Schultz and Paul Nathan are identifying biomarkers in blood and saliva that will help the parents of childhood cancer patients make treatment choices that will minimize their risk of long-term complications. At the PROOF (Prevention of Organ Failure) Centre of Excellence at the University of British Columbia,

Dr. Bruce McManus and his team are evaluating blood biomarkers that can predict which patients are most likely to reject organs after transplants. The tests will also reduce the need for invasive biopsies in transplant recipients. And in Montreal, Dr. Gustavo Turecki and his team are studying patterns of gene expression to find biomarkers that will enable doctors to predict which patients will respond to particular antidepressants.

As these research projects demonstrate, medical treatment should not be one-size-fits-all. That is why the CIHR Institutes of Cancer Research, Genetics, and Health Services and Policy Research are co-leading the CIHR Strategy on Personalized Medicine. This initiative aims to cultivate Canadian health researchers' strengths in identifying disease-related genes and biomarkers. It will also help promote the translation of biomarkers into clinical practice, and ensure that clinically effective biomarkers make it expeditiously into the health care system. This initiative will work with existing networks in Canada, such as the Networks of Centres of Excellence and various disease marker networks, to achieve this goal.

Canadian researchers are leading the way in discovering and utilizing biomarkers that could ultimately improve the way medicine is practised and prescribed. Their work will allow health care practitioners to tailor treatments, preventive strategies and pharmaceuticals to their patients’ individual profiles and genetic makeup. The end result will be better health for Canadians.

Dr. Morag Park
Scientific Director
CIHR Institute of Cancer Research

Dr. Paul Lasko
Scientific Director
CIHR Institute of Genetics

Dr. Robyn Tamblyn
Scientific Director
CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research