Challenges remain for life scientists who carry out biomarker research studies even though high-throughput biomarker research has provided them with a significant amount of data with which to work. Numerous leading scientists plan to convene in March 2008 at Cambridge Healthtechs Molecular TriMedicine Conference in San Francisco to discuss ways to further biomarker research while at the same time addressing key roadblocks to these research efforts. Material for plasma biomarkers can be obtained in clinical practice through simple blood work, yet finding these circulating biomarkers can be difficult because they are small in number. Biomarker discovery at the benchtop level can gather huge amounts of data, yet putting that data in context is significant in prioritizing further research. Part of the answer is knowing the previous research, though gathering thousands of pages of research can be hard work. Roughly 40 amyloid diseases are currently known, and these protein-associated disorders take on alternative conformations frequently noted in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers. In the biomarker discovery pipeline, how researchers transition from discovery to verification, while maintaining high throughput, is rather challenging. One possible solution under development is multiple reaction monitoring (MRM), a sensitive, quantitative mass spectrometry (MS) tool coupled with global internal standards that bypass synthetic protein standards. In some ways, biomarker discovery is only as good as the breadth of the biologically relevant samples that a clinician or researcher has available. The infectious disease and immunogenetics (IDS) group of the Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health (NIH) profiled basal cell carcinoma treated with Imiquimod. Comparing pre- and post-Imiquimod therapy, they identified 1,500 differentially expressed genes, yet the placebo-treated samples decreased that gene pool to 600 genes.