Differential gene expression is a highly regulated process which controls normal cell growth and differentiation; its abnormality is the underlying cause of disease states such as cancer. Our objective is twofold: (I) to provide the biomedical research community with complete line of reagent systems based on the latest technological breakthrough known as Differential Display, (2) to use our expertise to search for early diagnostic markers or therapeutic targets for disease states such as cancer. These reagent systems have made identifications and clonings of differentially expressed genes within easy reach for every researcher. The principle of Differential Display IS to systematically distribute mRNA 3' termini on a denaturing polyacrylamide gel after RNA PCR using multiple combinations of anchored oligo dT and arbitrary decamers. This Selective Display approach modifies the method by using, instead of anchored origo dT primers, a set of gene family specific decamers in combinations with arbitrary decamers to display only those genes of interest. Thus, it complements Differential Display by narrowing down the scope of a gene search while allowing only the coding regions of mRNAs to be displayed. If successful, this work will lead to more lines of commercial reagent systems for the general research community and will greatly speed up hunting down many important disease causing genes.Commercial ApplicationsOur corporation will develop and market reagent systems for the selective display technology if the feasibility can be established in this phase I study. Like our reagent systems RNAmap series, these selective dlsplay reagent systems will assist biomedical researchers to identify, and isolate differentially expressed genes in a broad spectrum of biological systems.National Cancer Institute (NCI)
