The NTNU Bio-nanomachines: Next-generation tools for high-resolution Genomics in Diagnostics and Medical Research

An epigenetic change also changes a gene’s DNA — but not at the sequence level. Instead, special marks are added or removed to change how a protein works in the body. These could also contribute to disease. How these marks appear is a hot research topic. Some causes may be diet, stressors or environmental pollutants. What’s important about epigenetics is that it offers a different approach to treating disease. Whereas a hardcopy genetic mutation is difficult to fix, finding ways to remove a bad epigenetic mark, or add a good one, could be an easier solution. Proper understanding of epigenetic regulation is therefore key to understanding biological processes and diseases, such as cancer, neurological and metabolic disorders. Unfortunately, current tools used for epigenetic analysis are costly, cumbersome, time consuming, suffering from bad signal to noise ratio and limitations from being used on few cells (single cell) profiling. The NTNU Bio-nanomachines aim to overcome these limitations through a patent pending approach. The project focuses on validating the bio-nanomachines. One approach involves conducting small cell number profiling on various biological samples and comparing the results with data from existing methods. The value proposition and user adoption of these bio-nanomachines will also be compared to existing tools. The intersection of nanotechnology and epigenetics holds immense potential, and the NTNU bio-nanomachines may contribute to this exciting field.