Molecular foundation of a diseased cell

ANYL 383

Weihong Tan, tan@chem.ufl.edu, Dept. of Chemistry, Center for Research at Bio/nano Interface, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611
There must be molecular level differences among different types of cells. These differences should serve us well in developing a deep understanding of the biological processes involved in these cells. However, knowing the differences between any two types of cells is not an easy task, sometimes impossible with current technologies. Our rationale in the new approach to generate effective probes for molecular recognition is that there are molecular level differences between any two given types of cells. How to find out these differences and then use these differences to achieve a full understanding of the molecular basis of diseases is the major theme of this talk. We have developed a novel strategy, cell-SELEX, to generate panels of aptamers without any prior knowledge about the potential disease biomarkers. In this approach, a tumor cell is used as the target, and a control cell is used for negative selection. The aptamers are extremely specific in recognition of target cells. They have Kd values ranging from nM to pM. The newly selected aptamers can be used to biomarker discovery for a specific type of cells. The biomarker discovery of diseased cells forms the basis for the molecular elucidation of diseases.