Early detection of cancer and Alzheimers with blood tests:

The company is also validating protein-based tests for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, the latter an affliction for which the only conclusive test is currently an autopsy. Among the possible benefits of a proteomic Alzheimer's test, due out late next year, would be the ability to definitively separate sufferers from those with other neurodegenerative problems, now a major obstacle to running effective clinical trials of drugs for Alzheimer's.

"Power3 won't do it all," says Essam Sheta, the company's director of biochemistry. "But my expectation is that in the next five years, we as a scientific community will be able to develop diagnostic tests for many, many types of diseases."

Let's hope so.