Testing for health conditions usually involves needles, X-rays and other invasive or uncomfortable measures. To make diagnostics less burdensome for patients, scientists are developing alternatives, looking for disease markers in urine — and even spit. Now a study, appearing in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research, demonstrates for the first time that individuals may have saliva "fingerprints." The finding suggests that identifying changes in these baseline fingerprints could someday be a reliable way to detect disease.
