Biomarkers
Biomarkers are key molecular or cellular events that link a specific environmental exposure to a health outcome. Biomarkers play an important role in understanding the relationships between exposure to environmental chemicals, the development of chronic human diseases, and the identification of subgroups that are at increased risk for disease. Much progress has been made in identifying and validating new biomarkers that can be used in population-based studies of environmental disease.
As part of the new Genes and Environment Initiative, the NIEHS is supporting the development of new technologies that will enable scientists to study how the body responds to environmental agents. Such technologies include sensitive biomarkers that can measure subtle changes in inflammation, oxidative damage, and other pathways that can lead to disease.
Health Studies & Clinical Trials
What NIEHS is Doing on Biomarkers
- Is Spit the Future in Diagnosis of Preclinical Parkinson's? (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/newsletter/2011/july/science-spit/index.cfm)
- Gene-Environment Interaction: Effect of Polymorphisms on Biomarkers in Coal Miners
- NIEHS Pocket Card (448KB)
- SBRP: Biomarkers
- SBRP: Biomarkers of Exposure to Hazardous Substances
- Study Finds a Possible Biomarker of Occupational Exposure in Firefighters (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/newsletter/2012/9/science-biomarker/index.htm)
- Tox21: Understanding the potential health risks of chemicals (642KB)
- Validating hair as a biomarker of manganese exposure (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/newsletter/2013/3/science-hair/index.htm)
General Information
- Monitoring Environmental Exposures: Now It's Personal
- Signs of the Times; Biomarkers in Perspective
- Talking Glossary of Genetic Terms: Dominant
- Talking Glossary of Genetic Terms: Genes
- Talking Glossary of Genetic Terms: Genetic Code
- Talking Glossary of Genetic Terms: Genetic Marker
For Educators
- Build a Personal Sensor (115KB)
- National Human Genome Research Institute: National DNA Day
- Tracing the Origins of Autism: A Spectrum of New Studies (158KB)
