New method enables detection of plasma biomarkers cheaply and at scale

Blood plasma is collected from people routinely during clinical care and for research. It is potentially a rich source of protein biomarkers for diagnostic and prognostic purposes, for measuring response to treatment, and for revealing disease biology. Yet identifying such biomarkers in plasma with proteomics, our best available tool, has been a challenge: 99% of plasma consists of everyday proteins like albumin, globulins, and coagulants that essentially crowd out the needle-in-a-haystack proteins that could serve as biomarkers.