Fig. 1.

Experimental design and data analysis pipeline. (A) Over the course of one year, samples from 101 individuals were collected at four different visits to the clinic. (B) Plasma proteins were measured from 1 µl EDTA plasma with antibodies conjugated to beads. (C) Following each completed visit, samples were randomized within an assay and analysed together with all previously collected visits. In total, four SBAs were created and incubated with the samples as indicted in the flowchart. (D) Protein profiles were tested for associations to clinical traits, longitudinal stability, networks of co-regulation and GWAS.

The underlined labels correspond to assays where the complete set of samples were analysed in duplicate. Labels in bold correspond to assays where the SBA was incubated with 96 replicated samples for technical validation. SBA, suspension bead array; GWAS, genome wide association study