The 'tuRNAround' project

Schematic overview

Why

High mortality of newborns due to lack of early diagnosis with the possibility of early intervention and prevention.

Mission

Improving survivability and health

of the very young and their mothers in Indonesia.

How

Early diagnosis of life-threatening causes

and complications.

When

During pregnancy and during the first

1000 days after birth.

By which

Modern non-invasive biomarker (RNA) analysis.

Term

2023: Set up test in laboratory.

2024: Clinical validation of test

2025: Independent continuation.

Vision

Continue to exist independently in Indonesia after project completion.

Why RNA?

Circular non-coding RNA as QR code of disease and health

1. RNA is the work order that determines when and where something is active in our body and directly reflects the actual situation of illness and health. DNA reflects this indirectly.

2. A large part of RNA does not make a protein, the so-called non-coding RNA (ncRNA). The clinical information obtainable by analysis of ncRNA (275,107 genes) is 13-fold higher than the information obtained by analysis of proteins (20,647 genes).

3. ncRNA contains a special moiety (circular RNA) that is extremely stable and allows reliable analysis for diagnostic purposes. This makes them ideal for analysis (as diagnostic biomarkers) in countries such as Indonesia with sub-optimal analysis capabilities.

The foundation uses these modern insights to succeed in its goal.

Approach

Genome-wide analysis: the book principle

The approach to be followed (genome-wide RNA) analysis can be compared to the situation when a printing, grammar or typing error has to be found in an unknown book. Only the words used (RNA) are read from the vocabulary (DNA). This is done for all pages (genome-wide). Comparison of a patient's book with a healthy person's book then provides information about the location and type of the error(s) (disease) in the patient. Modern technology ('Next-gen sequencing') and bioinformatics ('data crunching') make this possible at a cost that is rapidly decreasing.