Figure 2.

The process of developing a biomarker for alcohol exposure. The first step is to identify a chemical that would indicate alcohol exposure or the effect of exposure and develop methods to measure the biomarker. Validating a biomarker means to ensure that it correctly identifies exposure without false positives or false negatives. Markers of exposure must be validated according to their ability to assess the true exposure (i.e., the sensitivity) and lack of exposure (i.e., the specificity).

SOURCE: Adapted from Groopman and Kensler 1999.