The present invention relates to a method for diagnosing a liver disease in a mammal comprising the step of determining the amount of a product encoded by the NOG gene in a biological fluid sample of said mammal and diagnosing a liver disease if the amount of the product encoded by the NOG gene in the sample of said mammal is different from the amount of the product encoded by the NOG gene determined in a sample of a healthy mammal.

Broodmare imminence of ovulation and reproductive competence may be determined by collecting blood, serum or plasma samples from a mare over two or more days in such mare's estrous cycle; obtaining a set of concentration measurements of one or more peptide hormones of the TGF-β superfamily in such samples over such two or more days; detecting an onset of a change in the relative magnitude or slope of successive concentration measurements of such one or more peptide hormones during such cycle; and coordinating live cover or artificial insemination of such mare to occur no later than three days after such onset. The disclosed method may be performed using an associated system that measures, processes and stores the measurements. The system may detect and optionally provide notification of the onset of such change.

The present invention refers to osteomodulin (OMD) protein or fragment of osteomodulin (OMD) protein for use in the prognosis and/or diagnosis of osteoarthritis and/or subchondral bone sclerosis of mammals, preferably human individuals. The present invention further refers to a method for prognosis and/or diagnosis of osteoarthritis and/or subchondral bone sclerosis, comprising the following steps: i) measuring osteomodulin (OMD) protein or a fragment or fragments of osteomodulin (OMD) protein in samples of body fluids of mammalian individuals, preferably human serum samples; ii) judging that decreased levels of osteomodulin (OMD) protein or of said fragment(s) compared to levels in body fluids, preferably serum, of healthy individuals indicate onset of osteoarthritis and/or subchondral bone sclerosis. The present invention also provides an immunological binding partner specifically binding to osteomodulin (OMD) protein or fragment of osteomodulin (OMD) protein for use in the prognosis and/or diagnosis of osteoarthritis and/or subchondral bone sclerosis of mammals, preferably human individuals and a kit comprising said immunological binding partner.

The invention relates to the diagnosis of stroke resulting from occlusion of one or more large vessels in the brain, and in particular to the diagnosis of stroke resulting from occlusion of one or more large vessels in the brain using one or more biomarkers.

The present invention relates methods of treatment using BMP6 antagonists.

A TLR7/8 inhibitor for reduction of bone resorption, especially in chronic joint diseases, and to a pharmaceutical composition including the inhibitor. A method for predicting the severity of the course of disease of rheumatoid arthritis in a patient.

Provided herein are methods of using BMP7 levels as a marker for the selection of patients, such as non-small cell lung cancer patients, who will clinically respond to combination therapy comprising a BMP7 inhibitor and an immune checkpoint therapy, such as an anti-PD1 therapy and/or an anti-CTLA-4 therapy. Also provided are methods of treating the selected patients with a combination of a BMP7 inhibitor and an immune checkpoint therapy.

Disclosed are methods for methods for quantitating and standardizing an anti-inflammatory response of a product and methods for determining the likelihood that a product would produce an anti-inflammatory effect in a subject when administered to the subject. Accordingly, disclosed herein are methods, compositions and kits for characterizing and evaluating the anti-inflammatory effect of products, particularly therapeutic biological products.

A method of preparing a cantilever sensor for measuring biochemical interactions and their associated stress wherein a cantilever having two sides is coated on one side with at least a gold layer and both sides of the cantilever are functionalized with a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of a probe molecule by incubating the cantilever in a solution having a concentration of the probe molecule of between 1 to 1000 μM. The unpassivated cantilever sensor comprising a layer coated on one side with a coating comprising gold and being unpassivated on the opposite side, wherein both surfaces comprises a self-assembled monolayer of a probe molecule in which the surface area occupied per probe molecule varies in the range 0.4-1.5 nm.sup.2, enabling the stress at the gold top surface that is not cancelled out by a counter stress from the bottom surface so that accurate quantitation of a target molecule is achieved.

Methods for quantifying GDF-9-BMP-15 heterodimers and GDF-9 and BMP-15 homodimers using antibodies directed to epitopes in GDF-9 and BMP-15 in a sandwich ELISA are provided. Also provided are kits for quantifying the heterodimers.