Nanopore Sequencing and DNA Barcoding Method Gives Hope of Personalized Medicine
Published:12 Oct.2023 Source:Imperial College London
Currently, many diseases are diagnosed from blood tests that look for one biomarker (such as a protein or other small molecule) or, at most, a couple of biomarkers of the same type. The new method, developed by scientists at Imperial College London in a research collaboration with Oxford Nanopore Technologies (Oxford Nanopore), can analyse dozens of biomarkers of different types at the same time. This would potentially allow clinicians to gather more information about a patient's disease.
The test works by mixing the blood sample with DNA 'barcodes'. Once the sample and barcodes have been mixed, the resulting solution is injected into a low-cost handheld device previously developed by Oxford Nanopore -- the MinION. The Oxford Nanopore device holds a flow cell, containing an array of nanopores -- very small holes -- that are able to read the electrical signature from each DNA barcode that passes through them. The complex electrical signal the device produces is interpreted by a machine-learning algorithm to identify the type and concentration of each biomarker present in the sample.
After showing that this method can successfully measure 40 miRNA molecules in healthy patient blood, the team are now working with clinical samples from heart failure patients to validate the results. Regular testing like this could also help clinicians establish their individual patient baselines for common blood biomarkers.