Scientists are developing a set of medical tests called liquid biopsies that can rapidly detect the presence of cancers, infectious diseases, and other conditions from only a small blood sample. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin are developing a new tool for liquid biopsy that could soon provide doctors with a more complete picture of an individual's disease, improving their chances of finding the best treatment, while also sparing patients the pain, inconvenience, and long wait times associated with surgical biopsies. Dr. Alan Lambowitz, a Professor in the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology and the Department of Molecular Biosciences, and his team are studying an ancient enzyme in bacteria that can be used to detect bits of genetic material shed by cancer or other diseased cells into a patient's bloodstream. Many current liquid biopsies can detect DNA in blood; others can detect RNA, although they tend to miss many key RNA biomarkers and misinterpret others. But this ancient enzyme, described in a paper published online on November 16, 2017 in Molecular Cell, detects the full range of RNAs with much higher accuracy, which is helpful for understanding both the general profile of a disease such as cancer and specific information about its activity in a particular patient. This improved method could provide a key tool for doctors pursuing the dream of precision medicine, or treatments tailored to individuals based on their genetics and life histories, as well as the unique aspects of their diseases. In this new study, postdoctoral researcher Dr. Jennifer Stamos uncovered for the first time the molecular structure of this RNA-detecting enzyme in action, offering clues about how it works and how it can be improved for use in medical tests. The Molecular Cell article is titled “Structure of a Thermostable Group II Intron Reverse Transcriptase with Template-Primer and Its Functional and Evolutionary Implications.”Login Or Register To Read Full Story