Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Minimally invasive diagnostic analyses that do not require tissue sampling is a desirable approach for detectionx000D
of wide range of diseases, including invasive pathogens. RNA-based biomarkers from these pathogens arex000D
released to the bloodstream and become part of the cell free RNA pool in blood, making them promising forx000D
disease detection. These biomarkers, however, usually exist in small amounts and are exceptionally fragile. Inx000D
situations where the storage conditions of the blood sample fall outside optimal handling conditions, the qualityx000D
of the samples is compromised, thereby decreasing the sensitivity and accuracy of biomarker analysis. We arex000D
proposing a novel system that entails nucleic acid binding polymers to stabilize RNA markers present in bloodx000D
to prevent their degradation under non-optimal temperature and processing (time) conditions. It is envisionedx000D
that the blood samples treated with the stabilizing agents and subsequent analysis can be carried out withoutx000D
sample degradation. Upon successful completion of this project, our industrial partner Aquila Diagnosticx000D
Systems Inc. is expected to launch of the new blood collection system that will result in a new source ofx000D
revenue and increase the job creation in Canada.