Integrated biomarker discovery: combining heterogeneous data

“The most valuable biomarkers may well be integrated sets, best discovered through the systematic application of multianalyte assays from a variety of instrument platforms, spanning several levels of biological processes.” As a research community, we are seeing an increase in the number of analytes that can be measured in a single assay, and an increase in the number of studies that perform multiple assays on the same samples [1]. To fully exploit the resulting data, we need to combine heterogeneous data from diverse assays, associated sample-descriptive data, and clinical and demographic data into a cohesive whole. The discipline of data...