Understanding Society biomarkers: what they measure and how to use them

This is a practical seminar that will introduce the (blood based) biomarkers in Understanding Society, which will be made available in the autumn. We will outline the biological processes and health outcomes that they capture and why they might be of interest for social research. We will also describe the factors that need to be considered in analysing these data. Using very preliminary data, we will illustrate some of these issues with four examples – crp (an inflammatory marker), ferratin (measure of iron in blood), eGFR (chronic kidney disease) and testosterone (muscle building hormone).