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New RNA-based Biomarker Discovery and Diagnostics

Technology:

Brief Description

A molecular diagnostic platform that enables characterization of cellular stress and damage. This technology may be applied to a broad range of clinical settings, from assessing the efficacy of cancer therapies to detecting inflammatory and autoimmune disorders, ischemia/reperfusion injury, and toxic environmental exposures.

Problem

There is a growing demand for accurate molecular diagnostics to assess cellular damage for disease monitoring and treatment. However, traditional types of biomarkers often face challenges such as limited interoperability, low sensitivity, and a lengthy, costly discovery process. These issues create a bottleneck in the development and implementation of effective new diagnostics.

Solution

Our RNA-based diagnostic platform eliminates the need for cell- and organ-specific gene panels, focusing instead on a single universal class of RNA molecules. This novel approach can generate digital, AI/ML-ready biomarkers adaptable to diverse operational workflows, including digital pathology and biofluid-based laboratory tests.

Technology

Our approach integrates advanced molecular biology, next-generation sequencing (NGS) and computational analysis to produce unique diagnostic biosignatures from ribosomal RNA (rRNA)—a universal and abundant type of RNA. Additionally, we aim to use machine learning (ML) algorithms to facilitate the translation of this technology into practical applications for clinical diagnostics.

Advantages

Stage of Development

  • Faster, simpler biomarker discovery: produces a digital signature from a single RNA type, reducing time and cost compared to traditional approaches
  • Broad clinical applicability: rRNA is ubiquitous, universally occurring, and sequence-conserved across cell types
  • High analytical sensitivity: rRNA abundance supports detection from low sample inputs, compatible with minimally invasive liquid biopsies and small solid-tissue specimens
  • Flexible digital readout: outputs are visually interpretable 2D barcodes or numerical matrices ready for machine learning  classifiers

Bench-tested / Preclinical validation

proof-of-principle established in cell culture models














 
Patent Information:
Title Country App Type Serial No. File Date Patent No. Issued Date Expire Date Patent Status
Method for Deriving Diagnostic Biomarkers from Ribosomal RNA United States US Provisional 63/906,059 10/27/2025     10/27/2026 Pending

Category(s):
Engineering
For Information, Contact:
Neal Lemon
Associate Vice President
Rowan University
lemonna@rowan.edu
Inventors:
Dimitri Pestov
Ekaterina Kashkina
Keywords: