Heart failure affects 64 million people worldwide but current diagnostic methods face significant limitations. Blood tests, clinical evaluations and imaging technologies are often expensive and can be geographically inaccessible, leading to delayed diagnoses when treatment options become limited.

“Early symptoms are often subtle and nonspecific, meaning patients typically receive treatment only in advanced disease stages,” says first author Dr. Roxane Mutschler, of the ARC Center of Excellence in Synthetic Biology at Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

The biomarker S100A7 was discovered by Professor Chamindie Punyadeera’s team at Griffith University. Instead of using the body’s natural antibodies to detect problems, the researchers used a technique called mRNA display to custom-build their own protein detectors from scratch. They created millions of different versions and let them compete to see which ones best latched onto the heart failure marker.