Measuring circulating cell-free RNA can provide a noninvasive, tissue-specific way to monitor fetal development and changes in disease status, according to a study published May 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The authors say that RNA, a measure of gene expression, provides a more dynamic picture of health and development than the snapshot provided by DNA in applications like noninvasive prenatal testing, molecular tissue-typing, and tumor characterization. “We’ve moved beyond just detecting gene sequences to really analyzing and understanding patterns of gene activity,” said senior author Stephen Quake, Ph.D., Stanford University (Palo Alto, Calif.), in a statement. “Analyzing the RNA enables a much broader perspective of what’s going on in the body at any particular time. ”Using a combination of microarray and next-generation sequencing technologies, the researchers were able to characterize the sequences and relative levels of RNA in the blood of pregnant women, healthy volunteers, and Alzheimer’s patients. By focusing on RNA messages, encoding proteins produced only in certain tissues, the researchers were able to track the relative proportions of specific RNA circulating and could assess the development or health of particular organs over time. By analyzing combined cell-free RNA transcriptomes (100 genes whose RNA […]