Christopher Lausted, Ph.D.
Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, Washington, U.S.

High-throughput molecular measurements are needed to monitor health and wellness. Traditionally, health care professionals like physicians have sought high-quality biomarkers for diagnosis, guiding therapy, and predicting therapeutic response. Unfortunately, most biomarkers suffer from low sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value. For over a decade, Christopher Lausted has been developing novel biosensors and assays at the Institute for Systems Biology for the purpose of finding better biomarkers for cancer, neurodegeneration, and drug toxicity. These technologies, such as gene chips and protein chips, have helped to reduce the cost of assays and increase the amount of data available from blood samples. Increasingly, these measurements are available to nutritionists, citizen scientists, and interested individuals in the Quantified Self movement.