One of the main ways doctors use biomarkers is to better understand what’s happening inside the body to help detect or confirm a specific disease or condition, kind of like a mechanic figuring out what is going wrong inside a car. 

​

Let’s imagine one morning you turn on your car, and the check engine light appears. This light is a sign or “symptom” that something might be wrong. So, you take your car to a mechanic who measures the amount of oil, checks the spark plugs, and runs several other diagnostic tests. Using these “biomarkers,” the mechanic can pinpoint what’s going wrong under the hood. In the same way, doctors test for biomarkers like blood sugar levels to help diagnose diabetes or high numbers of white blood cells to detect an infection. 

​

Health care professionals and researchers also use biomarkers to figure out a person’s risk of developing a disease, track disease progression, better predict the course of a disease, improve clinical trial design, and better assess the efficacy and safety of a treatment. 

​