Biomarkery

Biomarkery is a term used in some disciplines to describe the study, identification, and application of biomarkers—biological indicators that can be measured to assess health, exposure to environmental agents, or disease state. The term is not as widely standardized as biomarker or biomarker discovery, and its usage varies across fields.

In practice, biomarkery encompasses the discovery and validation of biomarkers, as well as their deployment in diagnostics, prognosis, treatment monitoring, and risk assessment. It may also include the integration of biomarker data with imaging, genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and other data streams to interpret biological states.

Common applications include early disease detection (diagnostic biomarkers), predicting disease course (prognostic biomarkers), monitoring response to therapy (pharmacodynamic biomarkers), and guiding treatment choices (predictive biomarkers). In environmental and forensic contexts, biomarkers can indicate exposure levels or forensic age of samples.

Methods used in biomarkery align with biomarker research: high-throughput assays, omics approaches, imaging techniques, and analytical validation. Challenges include validation across populations, reproducibility of measurements, standardization of assays, regulatory approval, data privacy, and interpretation of biomarker panels.

Relation to standard terminology: the dominant term is biomarker or biomarker panel; biomarkery appears primarily as a colloquial or transitional label and is not universally recognized as a separate discipline.

See also: biomarker, biomarker discovery, personalized medicine, omics.