Why pushing sensitivity of assays

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Normal assays for biomolecules have detection thresholds of around $pM$. However, a tumor of $1mm^3$ contains around 1 million cells. Each secrete around 5000 proteins, and the human body has around 5 liters of blood. This gives around:

$$10^6 \frac{\textrm{prot}}{ml}$$
, or

$$2\cdot10^{-15}\textrm{M}$$


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Aquiles Carattino
Aquiles Carattino
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