The Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) has developed an advanced nano-bio material technique that can identify cancer genes with the most sensitive detection capacity, which is expected to contribute greatly in early diagnosis and personalized treatment of a variety of cancers. While decades away from implementation, this innovation has the potential to utterly redefine the way in which cancer is managed.
A New Kind of Diagnostic, for a Cancer Youve Never Heard Of
Dr. Min-young Lee and Dr. Sung-gyu Park are a team of researchers to have made such a remarkable accomplishment in cancer detection. The team’s new technique is able to detect cancer mutant genes in blood samples with an astonishing sensitivity of 0.000000001% – that means it can find a single mutant gene in one start trillion bits of DNA.
This discovery, a breakthrough in cancer biomarkers detection, has revolutionized the way to detect cancer early. Because the technology can even pick up on the tiniest cancer-related genetic mutations, it may be possible to catch the disease at its earliest stage when treatment is most successful. The team tested the system on samples of blood in patients with lung cancer at all stages (1-4) and in healthy individuals, with pecision of 96% []).
Outgrowing Traditional Genetic Analysis Limitations
Previous genetic analysis technologies have had trouble accurately diagnosing near-term cancer due to their relatively low analytical sensitivity. That has been a problem with these methods in being able to say, here is a mutated gene and this one is not and thus, be able to pick out cancer when it first starts.
Moreover, the cost and processing time of these historical measures have limited their implementation, particularly for screening purposes. To address these shortcomings, researchers from Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIMS) have created an affordable, ultra-quick analysis technique that allows for the examination of a wide range cancer mutations in under one hour.
The key to this innovation is the use of advanced nanomaterial technology which produces a highly enhanced fluorescence signal, and couple that with a novel primer/probe design for selective amplification OF light at wavelengths preferentially absorbed BY the mutant cancer genes over the essential normal genes. But this accurate discrimination of weak signals is essential for detecting the smallest amounts of cancer-associated genetic differences.
Conclusion
This pioneering nanomaterial technology that the KIMS researchers have developed could change the way we look at cancer diagnosis and treatment. This could have revolutionary implications for early diagnosis, treatment paradigms and ultimately survival rates and quality of life in cancer patients, with the unprecedented sensitivity to detect. It is hoped that this will develop into a hugely powerful weapon in the fight against malaria as this technology becomes more perfected and runs its course.
