NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the Mayo Clinic, and the Medical College of Wisconsin are developing a diagnostic platform intended for single-molecule imaging of microRNA directly from a single drop of blood.

The technology will be initially applied to metastatic prostate cancer, where fluctuating miRNA levels have been shown to correlate with response to treatment, with a long-term goal of creating a device that can be used by patients for at-home monitoring.