Your hemoglobin (or Hb for short) A1c level is a biomarker for diabetes.
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A family of five is exposed to the flu virus, but only two of them get sick. A lifelong chain-smoker lives 100 years, while a professional athlete in their prime dies of an unexpected heart attack. A drug fails a clinical trial due to harmful side effects in a subset of patients despite showing good results in others.

Could any of these scenarios have been predicted? The simple answer is not yet – but perhaps soon with the help of biomarkers.

Originally published on theconversation.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.