Hydrogel Particle-Based microRNA Profiling for Discovery and Cancer Diagnostics

描述（由申请人提供）：MicroRNA靶点在理解、诊断甚至治疗世界上最流行的疾病（包括癌症、心脏病、阿尔茨海默病、糖尿病等）方面显示出巨大的潜力。不幸的是，由于mirna的小尺寸、序列同源性和广泛的丰度，其量化尤其具有挑战性。因此，使用当今最先进的技术，miRNA分析要么昂贵，要么低通量。为了克服这些限制，一种基于编码水凝胶微粒和定制microRNA标记方案的新复用技术将被扩大、自动化和验证。这个项目可能会对癌症研究、药物发现和癌症诊断产生影响。

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.