Table 1.

Characteristics of an ideal biomarker

Specific

Specific to diseased organ or tissue

Able to differentiate pathologies

Sensitive

Rapid and significant release upon the development of pathology

Predictive

Long half-life in sample

Proportional to degree of severity of pathology

Robust

Rapid, simple, accurate and inexpensive detection

Unconfounded by environment and unrelated conditions

Translatable

Data can be used to bridge pre-clinical and clinical results

Non-invasive

Present in accessible fluid sample