Gunn Laura, Smith Martyn T
Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley 94720-7360, USA.
IARC Sci Publ. 2004(157):437-50.
New technology offers great potential for advances in cancer biomarker research. Here, we describe a number of new technologies and discuss their potential for use in molecular cancer epidemiology. The successful sequencing of the human genome has revealed several new insights, including the fact that the human genome consists of only 40,000 genes and is highly variable, with approximately 60,000 functional polymorphisms. High-throughput genomic technologies continue to facilitate the identification and analysis of mutations and polymorphisms in key genes and expand the spectrum of available genomic biomarkers. The next major challenge is the identification of novel proteins and understanding the structure, function and interaction of proteins and other molecules--information that cannot be obtained from genomics alone. Emerging technologies including arrays, proteomics and nanotechnology provide new platforms for high-throughput, highly sensitive, functional assays. These technologies will complement existing and emerging genomic technologies and result in the identification of new biomarkers of cancer risk. They will, however, require extensive validation in epidemiological studies.
新技术为癌症生物标志物研究的进展提供了巨大潜力。在此，我们描述了一些新技术，并讨论了它们在分子癌症流行病学中的应用潜力。人类基因组的成功测序揭示了一些新的见解，包括人类基因组仅由40,000个基因组成且高度可变，约有60,000个功能多态性这一事实。高通量基因组技术继续促进关键基因突变和多态性的鉴定与分析，并扩大了可用基因组生物标志物的范围。下一个主要挑战是鉴定新型蛋白质，并了解蛋白质及其他分子的结构、功能和相互作用——这些信息无法仅从基因组学中获得。包括阵列、蛋白质组学和纳米技术在内的新兴技术为高通量、高灵敏度的功能测定提供了新平台。这些技术将补充现有的和新兴的基因组技术，并导致鉴定出新的癌症风险生物标志物。然而，它们需要在流行病学研究中进行广泛验证。
