Scientists discover new way to predict risk of contracting various diseases

British scientists at Queen Mary University of London have discovered a new way to predict the risk of contracting various diseases, through a novel study that included thousands of proteins from a single drop of blood.Researchers linked protein data from a randomly selected group of participants to their electronic health records.The researchers used data from the UK Biobank Pharma Proteomics Project (UKB-PPP) with measurements of around 3,000 plasma proteins from more than 40,000 participants.The results showed that 15 to 20 proteins were able to predict the onset of 67 diseases, including multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, motor neuron disease, pulmonary fibrosis, and dilated cardiomyopathy. The protein prediction models outperformed models implemented based on standard clinically recorded information.Lead author of the study and director of the Universitys Precision Healthcare Research Institute, Claudia Langenberg, said "we are very excited about the opportunity to identify new markers for screening and diagnosis from among the thousands of circulating proteins that can now be measured in human blood".The importance of the results of this study lies in its ability to open up new prognostic possibilities for a wide range of diseases, including rare conditions, many of which currently take months or years to diagnose.