132662RNA biomarker stability in urine- technical feasibilityClosedFeasibility StudiesInnovate UKDNA is a code for RNA, which is the template for proteins. Within the same organism, all cells have the same DNA sequence but use different bits of DNA as codes for RNA (that is, selective DNA expression), so make different proteins. Thus, a human liver cell and a human skin cell are identical in DNA sequence, but very different to each other as they express different proteins. Diseases, including cancer, cause cells to alter the bits of DNA they make into RNA expressing altered proteins and these alterations are potentially useful diagnostic markers. Molecular biologists use a technique called quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qrtPCR) to quantify how much of a particular piece of RNA there is in a sample, and hence how this might indicate a person is suffering from a particular disease. However, qrtPCR has not been used outside of research labs to diagnose disease, mainly because RNA is inherently susceptible to degradation, making sample collection and storage near impossible. Arcis have developed a procedure to simplify RNA extraction and stabilise the RNA pool for up to 26 days. This project seeks to explore feasibility of adapting this to extract and stabilise RNA from urine, potentially allowing the validation of game-changing biomarkers for prostate and bladder cancers, amongst other conditions.