A Molecular ‘Google Map’ of the Brain Created by Israeli and US Researchers

But the more they were oppressed, the more they increased and spread out, so that the [Egyptians] came to dread the Israelites.

Exodus

1:

12

(the israel bible)

January 28, 2021

3 min read

Newly-developed technology at Bar-Ilan University (BIU) in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv, at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology enables scientists to blow up tissues and detect the exact location of RNA molecules inside them – thus promoting efforts to improve treatment of complex diseases, as well as Alzheimer’s disease and cancer research

 

Over the last decade, the field of genomics – which enables the extraction and in-depth study of RNA (ribonucleic acid) molecules from any tissue – has transformed biology and medicine. Molecules obtained from tissue in a healthy individual, for example, can be compared to molecules of a diseased individual, potentially revealing the cause of disease. The primary role of RNA is to convert the information stored in DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid, the molecule that contains the genetic code in each cell in the organism and tells cells what proteins to make). 

 

Until now, this potent approach has been limited to studying molecules outside the tissue. But for the proper function of tissues, it is important to identify the location of RNA molecules inside them. In a paper just published in the prestigious journal Science under the title “Expansion sequencing: “Spatially precise in-situ transcriptomics in intact biological systems,” researchers from the three universities reveal that they have succeeded in developing a technology that allows them, for the first time, to pinpoint millions of RNA molecules mapped inside tissues with nanoscale resolution. 

 

The new technology, which the researchers call “expansion technology,” represents a major step forward in efforts to treat complex diseases and in Alzheimer’s and cancer research. It was created by merging two methods developed six years ago – one by a team at Harvard to map RNA molecules inside simple cells, and the other by a team at MIT to physically ‘blow-up’ cells and tissues. 

 

“We now have a ‘Google map’ that allows measuring millions of RNA molecules within the tissue with nanoscale precision, without having to extract them as we did previously,” explained first-author of the study, Dr. Shahar Alon of BIU’s Faculty of Engineering, Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center and Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials. “Using expansion technology, researchers and medical doctors will be able to perform genomics analysis in 3D to obtain not only the identity of molecules, but also their location inside the tissue, and thus treat complex diseases better and more effectively,” he continued.

The new technology is also of particular importance for research into Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. In Alon’s lab, researchers are using it to detect RNA molecules inside synapses –

the small gap between two nerve cells where they can pass messages to communicate. The location of molecules in the tissue affects processes such as learning and memory, and can shed light on which molecules take part in these processes. This can advance understanding of whether molecules, or their location, are damaged as a result of diseases such as Alzheimer’s. The new technology can also be used to detect where cancer cells are located in the tissue in relation to immune system cells, and what their molecular contents are. They have already discovered that cancer cells can change their behavior according to the identity of their neighboring cells. That is, tumor cells can behave differently in terms of the molecules that they express if they are close to immune cells, and vice versa.

 

With this and several other new technologies, Alon predicted that the dawn of an age in which it will be possible to create complete molecular maps of tissues from individuals is on the horizon. When that happens experts in the fields of image analysis, data analysis and genetics will be needed to decipher these huge maps, and this radically new approach will be helpful in learning more about many complex diseases.  

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