RNA Institute News

Dr. Maksim Royzen, associate professor of Chemistry and RNA Institute Faculty member, has partnered with Shasqi to develop a click chemistry compound designed to target a powerful cancer drug at tumor cells while sparing healthy ones. This is the first time that click chemistry has been used inside a patient’s body. The treatment has just entered Phase 1 clinical trials. Read full article in Chemical & Engineering News.

Attracted by the chance to delve deep into RNA science and enhance career prospects, young PhD-level researchers continue to pursue The RNA Institute’s Fellows Program at record levels.

A group of researchers at the College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Ciencia Inc. and the New York State Department of Health, Wadsworth Center have developed a COVID-19 antibody test that takes only 30 minutes. The work has been posted on medRxiv titled "Multiplexed Detection and Quantification of Human Antibody Response to COVID-19 Infection Using a Plasmon Enhanced Biosensor Platform."

Developments by the RNA Institute have enabled the pooled testing program to isolate individual samples out of the pools being tested – ensuring that only potentially contagious people are referred for diagnostic PCR testing and transferred to isolation housing. This means that no longer will any person who is not presumed positive for COVID-19 (even if they are part of a positive pool) have to be placed into isolation housing or be referred for additional diagnostic testing.

NEW YORK – A research team at the University at Albany-State University of New York has pioneered a DNA nanoswitch technology to detect SARS-CoV-2 at the cost of a few pennies per reaction. The system can be easily reprogrammed to detect other viruses, and the group hopes to commercialize it through partnership with industry.

The University’s pooled surveillance testing program is well underway and in addition to helping keep our community healthy and safe, the science behind it – happening in a lab right on our Uptown Campus – is receiving national media attention. Developed by the RNA Institute and the School of Public Health, the program provides a simple and non-invasive way to test the presence of the virus using a saliva sample. The process is straightforward: Participants, which at UAlbany include all students who spend time on campus and many faculty and staff, spit into provided test tubes on an assigned date and drop off samples.

SALIVA SAMPLES INSTEAD of deep, "brain-tickling" nasal swabs: A new wave of noninvasive, less tech-intensive testing is the latest advance in the battle against COVID-19. Dedicated researchers like Anne Wyllie and Andrew Berglund are making it possible.

Researchers at The RNA Institute developed a DNA-based platform for rapid viral RNA testing, including but not limited to Zika, Dengue and COVID-19.