Traditional tests for immunologic diseases measure disease activity with non-specific injury markers, markers of fully evolved injury, or by measuring the disease agent itself. A need exists to predict whether immunological disease will occur using tests which are highly specific for that disease.
Because of wide individual variation in immune response, thresholds of disease-risk or disease severity are unlikely to be the same in any two individuals. Therefore, predicting disease-risk in individuals can be difficult with traditional tests. Disease-risk assessment may be most useful when it is specific to an individual, and can be compared over time in that individual.
Personalized disease-risk assessment with cellular biomarkers utilizes inherent attributes of cells.