The SomaLogic Blog

Use it or lose it! A common phrase heard in gyms, doctor offices, internet, etc., about muscles. The more that muscles are used, the stronger they become. The converse is true too.

Will this person (or I) respond well to the treatment? This is perhaps one of the most asked questions by all healthcare providers. What if our bodies themselves could supply the answer to that question? We think they can, and it all boils down to the proteins that make you, you.

“No pain, no gain.” Hard exercise has many benefits, but it also carries a risk beyond a sprained muscle or joint injury. We are talking about problems with the heart (Goodman, Burr, Banks, & Thomas, 2016; Guasch et al., 2013). So, a trade-off exists. Is there a way to know what the right balance is – realize the wonderful benefits exercise has to offer without increasing the risk of heart problems? Could the answer be lurking in blood?

Proteomics opens the door to many possibilities with regards to gaining a deeper understanding about the human body that could help patients and streamline medical care. For instance, analyzing protein expression patterns for diseases or ailments can reveal the biological pathways at play and find probable drug targets.

Heart transplantation can extend and improve the quality of life for the lucky recipient, but not without risk. Aside from organ rejection, the heart recipient is at risk for cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) (Ramzy et al., 2005)–hardening/thickening of the vessels in the heart.

If not caught early, mobility loss is difficult to reverse (Leveille, Penninx, Melzer, Izmirlian, & Guralnik, 2000). Therefore, the sooner the onset of disability is found the better the chances of not losing one’s independence. But how far ahead of time can a future loss of mobility be seen?

SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) is menacing. This is a given. But, how does it affect the body and cause all the problems we are seeing?

Genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics are all examples of the body’s many languages. Understanding these languages could open the door to new perspectives about what is happening in the body in real time and warn about health problems down the road. But which one (or combo) will be the easiest, clearest, and most meaningful for learning how to achieve better health?

What do you have in common with this chicken? Perplexed? So is the chicken. While the two of you may cross roads from time to time, the features that really bind the two of you together are proteins.

Chaos (or randomness) is a fundamental law of life. Ever try to organize/clean something only to have a young one (two-legged or four legged) come through and undo all your efforts? That’s chaos exerting its authority! We experience chaos all the time.