NUCLEIC ACID HYBRIDIZATION (NAH), AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY RESEARCH TOOL, HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE A MAJOR DIAGNOSTIC PROCEDURE.

NUCLEIC ACID HYBRIDIZATION (NAH), AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY RESEARCH TOOL, HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE A MAJOR DIAGNOSTIC PROCEDURE. HOWEVER, THE CURRENT TECHNIQUE REQUIRES THE USE OF EXPENSIVE, HAZARDOUS, AND TIME-CONSUMINGMETHODS BASED ON RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS. FURTHERMORE, NAH TESTS TYPICALLY RESULT IN EITHER NON-QUANTITATIVE OR ONLY SEMIQUANTITATIVE INFORMATION, A SERIOUS LIMITATION WHEN IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW IF AN ABNORMAL QUANTITY OF A SEQUENCE (E.G., ONCOGENES) IS PRESENT. A NEW NONISOTOPIC LABELING PROCEDURE WHICH TAKES LESS THAN 1 HOUR, REQUIRES LESS TOXIC AND LESS EXPENSIVE REAGENTS, APPEARS MORE RELIABLE, AND HAS A SENSITIVITY THAT IS HIGHER THAN PREVIOUS METHODS HAS BEEN IMPLEMENTED IN PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS. AN IMPROVED METHOD FOR QUANTIFYING RADIOACTIVE AND NONISOTOPIC HYBRIDIZATIONS BASED UPON COMPUTERIZED IMAGE PROCESSING HAS ALSO BEEN DEVELOPED. A PHASE I GRANT WILL PERMIT DIGENE TO: (1) TESTTHIS LABELING TECHNIQUE ON NUCLEIC ACIDS FROM TRANSFORMED CELLS TO DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF USING THIS TECHNIQUE IN CLINICAL MEDICINE; AND (2) QUANTIFY THE EXTENT OF HYBRIDIZATIONS USING A PROTOTYPE IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM. IN PHASE II, THESE SYSTEMS WILL BE USED FOR THE ANALYSIS ANDQUANTITATION OF ONCOGENES, POTENTIALLY ONCOGENIC VIRUSES, AND CHEMOTHERAPY RESISTANCE IN A VARIETY OF CELL LINES AND CLINICAL SPECIMANS.