From Bedside to Bench: Methods in Precision Medicine

Precision medicine is a novel approach to clinical practice aimed at integrating traditional clinical data with biomarkers, which are able to further characterize patients, thus maximizing health outcomes in particular cases. Biomarker research is based on robust and rigorous laboratorial methodologies aimed at studying specific tissues, cells, or molecules. In this chapter, we provide a succinct overview of the various techniques available in histology and cell and molecular biology with a ubiquitous use in clinical medicine. We also give a few examples of known biomarkers in stroke and the techniques used for their discovery and identification/quantification.