Digital Analysis of Plasma miRNA populations in Pancreatic Cancer

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant The demand for robust reliable and minimally invasive diagnostic technologies represents a pressing need in the early detection stratification and surveillance of aggressive cancers Cell free microRNAs miRNAs represent a novel class of biomarkers that have shown promise during initial studies and may have significant clinical utility The ability to efficiently and accurately identify and quantify circulating miRNA populatins is challenging however and current approaches fail to meet the requirements of high specificity sensitivity accessibility and reproducibility necessary for widespread adoption in screening and monitoring applications In this phase I SBIR application RedVault Biosciences proposes to establish the feasibility of a novel multiplex diagnostic platform to characterize circulating cell free miRNA populations specifically those miRNAs of immediate utility in pancreatic cancer diagnosis stratification and intervention The broadly enabling technology leverages novel advancements in advanced molecular genomics synthetic biology and digital nucleic acid analysis to significantly reduce current complex laboratory workflows and provide quantitative reproducible and clinically informative results Successful development of this technology could provide fundamental information to positively affect miRNA research disease management and patient survival PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE Leveraging advanced molecular genomics technology and novel nucleic acid detection methods RedVault Biosciencesandapos proposes an innovative approach to reliably interrogate plasma specimens for clinically relevant miRNAs The methodology is a robust rapid specific sensitive and cost effective solution that meets the stringent criteria lad out for effective diagnostic platforms Successful development of this technology may deliver a fundamental advancement in the cancer screening tumor surveillance and miRNA research fields