Engineered RNA Modification Recognition - Abstract
Alida Biosciences Inc is developing a commercial platform for the analysis of the epitranscriptome, which is the
totality of chemical modifications applied naturally to RNA to regulate possibly all aspects of RNA biology:
transcription (mods are installed co-transcriptionally), translation, transcript lifetime, trafficking, alternative
splicing, RNA folding, RNA–protein interactions, and more. The field of epitranscriptomics has seen rapid growth,
motivated by the significance of this biology and the emerging opportunities to use RNA modifications as
diagnostic biomarkers and to intervene in epitranscriptomic pathways as a promising novel paradigm in drug
development, especially in cancer chemotherapy. Alida’s platform technology will make epitranscriptomics more
accessible by offering a user-friendly workflow, integrated process controls, and cloud-based data handling and
bioinformatics. In this SBIR grant, we seek to develop engineered RNA modification binding agents for
integration into our platform. The enhanced properties of the novel agents will be optimized specifically for our
platform to maximize sensitivity and selectivity, which is especially significant for high-value clinical samples in
which only sub-nanogram quantities of RNA are likely to be available: needle biopsies, FFPE samples, and
others.
