Innovative RNA Profiling in Cancer Cells

The ultimate goal of this proposal is to develop and commercialize a novel and powerful assay system for amplification and detection of gene transcripts in cancer-related studies. Specifically, our proprietary technology is targeted to providing tools for two types of applications. First, we will develop an assay system that can be used for in vitro RNA amplification. It will provide effective tools for studies of gene expression in cancer cells. It can also be used for detecting infectious agents in cancer samples. Second, we will test the feasibility of using our techniques for detection of gene expression in solid cancer specimens. Thus spatial distribution of expressed transcripts can be monitored directly on these samples. We also plan to devote our efforts to integrate our system into a technology platform that is compatible with modern techniques such as microarray, nanoparticle detection, and optical scanning. Molecular profiling of cancer with this technology will enable systematic analysis of perturbations of transcription initiation, alternative splicing, or RNA stability. The entire system is expected to have wide potential for applications in basic, preclinical and clinical cancer research. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: The proposed technology will be developed into marketable products such as lab kits or field kits for gene expression detection. Other application formats can be build upon the technology platform. Particularly, we will cooperate with other companies to develop analysis systems for high-throughput screening of cancer-related alterations of gene expression. The profitability of these systems is expected to be very high because of their enormous potential in biomedical field.