Patent ID: 8333880

Claim:
A method of identifying disease-specific markers in a biological sample, comprising: (1) obtaining at least one biological sample comprising proteins and protein complexes from at least one normal subject; (2) obtaining at least one biological sample comprising proteins and protein complexes from at least one diseased subject; (3) separating the proteins and protein complexes in the at least one biological sample provided in step (1) by membrane electrophoresis to obtain a normal separation profile; (4) separating the proteins and protein complexes in the at least one biological sample obtained in step (2) by membrane electrophoresis to obtain a disease separation profile comprising disease-specific protein and protein complex clusters; and (5) comparing the normal separation profile to the disease separation profile to determine the difference in the number and distribution of proteins and protein complex clusters between the normal and disease separation profiles, wherein the difference in the number, distribution or both number and distribution of proteins and protein complex clusters between the normal and disease separation profiles represents the disease-specific markers.