News Releases & Research Results Study successfully detects multiple microRNAs simultaneously in cells and classifies living cells with precision

Results of research and development by a research group led by Assistant Professor Kei Endo of the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, the University of Tokyo and a group led by Professor Hirohide Saito of the Department of Life Science Frontiers, CiRA, Kyoto University and others.

• By transfecting synthetic RNAs into cells, multiple microRNAs ("miRNAs")* in living cells can be detected, and the cells can be successfully classified with precision according to the cell type.
  * MicroRNAs ("miRNAs"): small non-protein-coding RNAs with a length between 20 and 30 nucleotides.
• It has been made possible to detect specific types of living cells; thus its application to the health care setting, such as use to slow down target cells, can be expected in the future.

This research and development was conducted with the support of Research Center Network for Realization of Regenerative Medicine Program by AMED.

The results of research and development were published on August 22 in the online version of Science Advances, an American scientific journal.

Endo K., et al. Numerical operations in living cells by programmable RNA devices, Science Advances
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aax0835