Identifying novel biomarkers through data mining-a realistic scenario?

Abstract

In this article we discuss the requirements to use data mining of published proteomics datasets to assist proteomics-based biomarker discovery, the use of external data integration to solve the issue of inadequate small sample sizes and finally, we try to estimate the probability that new biomarkers will be identified through data mining alone.

Keywords: Bioinformatics; Biomarker; Data mining; Databases; Mass spectrometry.