Early detection of different diseases is important to provide the right medicines and preventive measures to the right person, thereby improving people's health and quality of life.
Predict is a research infrastructure where researchers hope to find and qualify biomarkers that, after various tests, can be used in healthcare to prevent, treat or cure various diseases.
Predict has three aims
To measure biomarkers, i.e. substances in the blood that can be found early in different people. By finding biomarkers at an early stage, and linking them to information from other sources, it is possible to detect whether a person is at risk of becoming ill. It will also allow for early detection of disease.
Identifying diseases before diagnosis, to understand how diseases develop. Some diseases are very difficult to treat. By understanding how they develop, researchers can find new targets for treatment.
Investigate the factors that drive a person to develop multiple diseases and how different diseases affect each other.
Collected blood samples
Samples collected during health examinations in Västerbotten, to which all Västerbotten residents are invited at the ages of 40, 50 and 60, are stored in Biobanken norr. This provides unique opportunities to examine samples from healthy people.
Within Predict, the biobank is being transformed into a research database, where a large number of collected blood samples are combined with questionnaire and phenotype data. The purpose of the research database is to be able to compile data in an accurate and secure way for further analysis.
The aim is to provide more research groups with important knowledge to better understand many different diseases. These include diabetes, cancer, serious infections, cardiovascular and neurological diseases. Research may also focus on the effects of the environment on health.
In the future, it may be possible to add a blood sample, for example during a mammogram or health check-up, to analyse whether the known biomarkers for cancer are present in the blood.
