Denna sida
på svenska

Identification of predictive biomarkers for chronic diseases and mental/substance use disorders in middle-aged women

Principal investigator; Memon, Ashfaque, Adjunct Professor, MD/PhD

Clinical speciality: Oncology

Phone: +

Co-workers, Lund University: Sundquist Jan, Sundquist Kristina

Research area/areas: Cancer and Oncology, Cardiac and Cardiovascular Systems, Cell and Molecular Biology, Endocrinology and Diabetes, Psychiatry, Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology

Middle age is the beginning of a period when the risk of developing various chronic diseases increases, and is thus a key time for medical intervention. However most early disease processes go unnoticed because of a lack of symptoms. When symptoms do appear and patients contact their physician, the disease has often already reached a stage where in most cases it is incurable. In addition, chronic diseases can cause or contribute to various mental disorders.

According to the World Health Organization, chronic diseases such as cancer, coronary heart disease, and diabetes are by far the leading cause of mortality worldwide, accounting for 60% of all deaths. Approximately half of all deaths in 2005 caused by chronic diseases occurred in individuals under the age of 70, and half in women. There is an urgent need to identify biomarkers for the prediction of chronic diseases at an early stage.

At present, investigators usually rely on individual biomarkers to diagnose and predict diseases. However, because of the high level of etiologic heterogeneity in chronic diseases, the use of a single marker is unlikely to be sufficiently specific and reliable.

The proposed research project aims to identify predictive biomarker profiles for chronic diseases and mental/substance use disorders by analysing biological samples from middle-aged women from Lund. The project builds on the Women’s Health in the Lund Area (WHILA) study. We will expand this study by performing molecular analyses to identify and validate novel biomarker profiles for the prediction of chronic diseases and mental disorders.

All the molecules we propose to study can be analysed in samples (blood, plasma and serum) that were previously obtained from WHILA study participants. We will mainly use Luminex technology to analyse these molecules.

The proposed project will increase our understanding of how molecular profiles correlate with the development of chronic diseases and mental disorders. We hope that it will lead to the identification of reliable biomarkers for the early prediction of these conditions.

5 recent original publications

Memon AA, Weber B, Winterdahl M, Jakobsen S, Meldgaard P, Madsen HH, Keiding S, Nexo E, Sorensen BS
PET imaging of patients with non-small cell lung cancer employing an EGF receptor targeting drug as tracer
Br J Cancer. 2011; 105: 1850-5

Samsioe G, Lidfeldt J, Nerbrand C, Nilsson P
The women’s health in the Lund area (WHILA) study - an overview
Maturitas. 2010; 65: 37-45

Memon AA, Jakobsen S, Dagnaes-Hansen F, Sorensen BS, Keiding S, Nexo E
Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging with [11C]-labeled erlotinib: a micro-PET study on mice with lung tumor xenografts
Cancer Res. 2009; 69: 873-8

Memon AA, Sorensen BS, Meldgaard P, Fokdal L, Thykjaer T, Nexo E
The relation between survival and expression of HER1 and HER2 depends on the expression of HER3 and HER4: a study in bladder cancer patients
Br J Cancer. 2006; 94: 1703-9

Memon AA, Sorensen BS, Meldgaard P, Fokdal L, Thykjaer T, Nexo E
Down-regulation of S100C is associated with bladder cancer progression and poor survival
Clin Cancer Res. 2005; 11: 606-11

Further publications here (new window)

Financing/year