What are the major research areas/trends in computational biomarker discovery?

Question

[Diwan]

Hi all,

My primary area of research is computational drug design. Recently I am exploring gene expression and protein-protein interaction network analysis. I would like to be an expert in biomarker discovery and I am trying to find a research area in biomarker discovery that I could focus on.

I think gene expression (microarray) data is more easily available than proteomics or metabolomics data. I commonly see that people process gene expression data and develop a signature that could classify disease and non-disease conditions. Is this approach getting outdated?

I would really appreciate comments/suggestions from more experienced people in this forum (By this, I mean everyone else in this forum except me) on:

1. What are the major research areas in computational biomarker discovery? (or) what are the major trends in biomarker discovery? In which direction is this research going?
2. If you are a mentor who has to train a new entrant to be an expert in biomarker discovery, what would you advice him to learn or focus?

Thanks for your time.

Diwan