Tadpole Assays for the Molecular Assessment of Cancer

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Biologists have long known that cancer cells sometimes announce their presence by shedding certain molecules into the blood. More recently, many have come to believe that some cancers might be detectable by "signatures", patterns of sets of molecules, perhaps normally present in the blood, but, in for certain cancers, present in higher or lower amounts than normal. Recently, we learned to make new kinds of molecules, which we call "tadpoles". We have demonstrated that we can use them to detect and count small numbers of molecules. These assays are relatively simple and relatively inexpensive, and they should be applicable to both kinds of cancer detection. During the next 3 years, we seek funding to develop and "harden" these assays to the point that they can be tested in clinical cancer diagnosis.