Development of an Analytical Detection Platform Based on Smart Molecular Probes for Cancer Diagnostics Applications

The research project presented in this proposal involves the development of a sensitive analytical detection platform for cancer diagnosis. It includes custom design and characterization of sensitive molecular probes that are capable of specifically recognizing miR-21, a cancer biomarker. This ribonucleic acid (RNA) has been implicated in leukaemia, cervical cancer and breast cancer. Targeting these RNA biomarkers instead of protein markers provides a unique advantage of early cancer diagnosis and detection, since the RNA are smaller and can be sequence-specifically detected by molecular probes. Thus, through a combination of nucleic acid chemistry, spectroscopy and analytical chemistry, a unique set of molecular probes will developed in this project, with an attendant analytical detection platform for early cancer diagnosis. Interestingly, by subtle modification of their chemistry, molecular probes that will be developed in this project can also be used as drugs for cancer treatment. In addition to research publications, it is expected that this research work will also lead to one or more patents on the molecular probes and the analytical detection platform that will emerge from this project. This research project is significant and in the best interest of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at large, because it is expected to advance cancer detection and diagnosis, thereby raising the profiles of KFUPM and the Kingdom in the area of biomedical diagnostics, nucleic acid chemistry, rational probe design and analytical chemistry.