New technology matches drug treatments more closely to patient needs

Researchers from the National Centre of Competence in Research at the newly established Swiss Nanoscience Institute (SNI) in Basel, together with Roche scientists, have developed a method for the rapid and sensitive detection of disease- and treatment-relevant genes.

Ulrich Certa, head of Functional Genomics at the Roche Centre for Medical Genomics, said: "This promising new technology takes us a step nearer to tailoring treatment directly to patients' needs, hopefully with ever fewer adverse effects."

Many different body processes are involved in disease and its treatment. Gene activities are regulated in varying ways depending on heredity, partly accounting for the, often, differing individual responses to a given drug. What helps one patient may have no effect on another, or may even have adverse effects.

The new method detects active genes directly by measuring their transcripts (messenger ribonucleic acid), which represent the intermediate step and link to protein synthesis. Short complementary nucleic acid segments (sensors) are attached to tiny silicon cantilevers, which are only 450 nm thick and therefore react with extraordinary sensitivity. Binding of the targeted gene transcript to its matching counterpart on one of the cantilevers results in optically measurable mechanical bending.

In a paper published in the December issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology, the researchers cite the example of a tumour cell line in which interferon treatment activates an important gene for controlling cell growth to show that this nanomechanical method can be used for rapid gene transcript detection.

Being so sensitive, this new type of nanomechanical sensor has no need to label or copy the target molecules, greatly increasing measurement precision.

Because the method also works within minutes, it could be used as a real-time sensor for continuously monitoring biomedical processes.