Hydrogel Particle-Based microRNA Profiling for Discovery and Cancer Diagnostics

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): MicroRNA targets have shown enormous potential for understanding, diagnosing, and even treating the world's most prevalent diseases including cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, diabetes and many more. Unfortunately, miRNAs are particularly challenging to quantify due to their small size, sequence homology, and wide range of abundance. As such, miRNA profiling is either expensive or low-throughput using today's state-of-the art technologies. To overcome these limitations, a new multiplexing technology built on encoded hydrogel microparticles and a custom microRNA labeling scheme will be scaled up, automated, and validated. This project could have implications in cancer research, drug discovery, and cancer diagnostics.PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The aim of this project is to develop a technology capable of profiling across all human microRNA in a manner that is accurate, rapid, and inexpensive. This tool will be enabling for cancer research, drug discovery, and cancerdiagnostics.