BIO-NMD: biomarker research

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- Alessandra Ferlini Alesandra Ferlini is a professor in medical genetics, director of the Medical Genetics section at...
- Cathy Turner Cathy Turner is Duchenne Programme and TACT Coordinator at the John Walton Muscular Dystrophy Research...
BIO-NMD (contract no. 241665), led by Professor Alessandra Ferlini (Ferrara), was a research project on biomarker research and discovery that was funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme in January 2010.
Biomarkers are measurable bio-parameters that can be used to monitor disease progression, prognosis and drug response, thus optimizing the choice of appropriate and often personalized therapies. Early-stage clinical trials are typically so short that they provide limited opportunity to evaluate whether there is a meaningful clinical improvement. The identification of surrogate endpoints to help detect the activity of a new therapy in the early stages of development is essential to rapid progress on the development path.
BIO-NMD aims to discover and validate new genomic and proteomic biomarkers, which will be validated both in animal models and in human samples before entering into a qualification process at the EMA.
Funding for this project ended in 2012 however the website is still available to visit.