Translational Biomarkers, In Vitro and In Vivo

Current clinical and preclinical biomarkers suffer from lack of target organ specificity, sensitivity issues, and poor mechanistic insight. There is therefore a lot of interest in the field of biomarker discovery to overcome these issues, for both clinical and preclinical applications. In this chapter we set out to demonstrate how in vitro techniques are an indispensable tool in the development and discovery of novel mechanistically based biomarkers. We provide examples of several novel biomarkers which have been either discovered in vitro or where such systems have been used to elucidate key mechanistic information. Many of these biomarkers are more than innocent bystanders leaked into the surrounding tissue, with most highly implicated in cell and tissue survival as well as tissue differentiation. These new biomarkers will be not only useful for current preclinical and clinical applications but also advantageous in the development of better in vitro systems in order to reduce or replace animal testing.