Microscale microRNA Detection and Delivery for Effective Point-of-Care Cancer Screening and Therapeutics

MicroRNAs是一种短的RNA分子，在基因表达中起着关键的调节作用。最近于1993年发现的microRNA研究自那以后受到了相当大的关注，并被认为是医学上新兴的革命性前沿，因为它有治疗能力，可以“关闭”导致各种疾病的某些基因。此外，microRNA表达特征是许多疾病的强大生物标记物，如癌症。该项目将推进我们最近开创的芯片规模的声波微离心法和雾化技术，以克服目前在microRNA检测和输送方面面临的重大障碍，目的是开发用于早期癌症筛查和治疗的原型便携式微型设备。

MicroRNAs are short RNA molecules that play a critical regulatory role in gene expression. Recently discovered in 1993, microRNA research has since received considerable attention and is regarded as an emerging revolutionary frontier in medicine given its therapeutic ability to ‘turn off’ certain genes that lead to various diseases. Additionally, microRNA expression signatures are a strong biomarker for many diseases such as cancer. This project will advance the chip-scale acoustic microcentrifugation and nebulisation technology we recently pioneered to overcome the significant hurdles currently faced in microRNA detection and delivery with the aim of developing prototype portable microdevices for early stage cancer screening and therapy.