What are biomarkers? How doctors assess health and pooling people's cells reveals new markers—a biologist explains

AI Summary

The article explains how biomarkers can help doctors assess health and why people exposed to the same conditions may have different outcomes. It discusses pooling cells from multiple people as a way to identify new markers, with examples ranging from flu susceptibility to medication side effects.

A family of five is exposed to the flu virus, but only two of them get sick. A lifelong chain-smoker lives 100 years, while a professional athlete in their prime dies of an unexpected heart attack. A drug fails a clinical trial due to harmful side effects in a subset of patients despite showing good results in others.