The proteomics bottleneck: strategies for preliminary validation of potential biomarkers and drug targets Original Research Article

Proteomics technologies have proven extremely effective for discovering potential biomarkers and drug targets, but this success is creating a bottleneck. High-output technologies for discovery give way to low-output and low-throughput methods for preliminary validation. This bottleneck can be reduced though the use of several strategies. The first is to constrict the number of potential biomarkers and drug targets by dividing the proteome into smaller, more biologically significant segments. The second is to widen the bottleneck with higher-output and higher-throughput screening technologies. The third is to incorporate more preliminary validation into the discovery process. New and emerging technologies provide promise for each of these strategies.