Characterization of Extracellular Carriers by
Fluorescent Nucleic Acid Probes

The Extracellular RNA Communication Consortium (ERCC) will host a free online workshop May 11–12, 2023 on analysis of nucleic acids using dedicated molecular probes.

The workshop will benefit experimentalists interested in imaging, detecting, and quantifying RNA in cells and biofluids, as well as data scientist who would like to understand the field better. Any scientist who would like to begin working with molecular probes or is interested in their outstanding potential is encouraged to participate.

The chief goal of the workshop is to provide a solid background on the history and theory behind molecular probes, specifically molecular beacons, as well as best practices for working with them. Attendees will learn the most effective methods for imaging and quantifying the fluorescence signal associated with molecular probes, including the critical specifications required for their use with different imaging instrumentation. We will also discuss applications, providing specific examples of using molecular beacons for disease detection and diagnosis.

Another goal of the workshop is to promote an open dialog about best practices and problems in extracellular RNA imaging analyses, focusing mainly on cross-validation of imaging results with accepted readouts such as digital and qRT-PCR and other orthogonal methods.

Join us in May and become part of a network of like-minded scientists, fostering interaction and collaboration in this exciting field!

NAprobes23 is an online workshop that will be held Thursday May 11th and Friday May 12th, 2023. Registration is free but required for all participants. All registered participants have now received email instructions on how to access the live stream. Please contact info@exRNA.org with questions.

Program

PDF

All times US Eastern daylight time (EDT, UTC-4)

Thursday, May 11th

Session 1: Foundations
12:0012:05 Ionita Ghiran Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Workshop Introduction
12:0512:35 Sanjay Tyagi Public Health Research Institute
New Jersey Medical School
Rutgers University
Topic: Foundations of fluorescent nucleic acid probes
12:351:05 Wesley Wong Harvard Medical School,
Boston Children’s Hospital &
The Wyss Institute at Harvard
High-sensitivity, high-specificity detection with DNA nanoswitches
1:051:2015 minute break
Session 2: Probe Design, Instrumentation, and Methods I
1:201:50 Ionita Ghiran Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Topic: Probing exRNA methylation in extracellular vesicles
1:50 2:20Jian Wang Penn State College of Medicine RNA 3D structure prediction: From traditional to machine learning techniques
2:202:50 Sanjay Tyagi Public Health Research Institute
New Jersey Medical School
Rutgers University
Topic: Designing fluorescent molecular probes
2:503:00 10 minute break
Session 3: Applications I
3:003:30 Peixuan Guo Director, Center for RNA Nanobiotechnology
and Nanomedicine
The Ohio State University
Exosomes to carry and deliver dynamic, motile, and deformable RNA nanoparticles for cancer therapy
3:304:00 Chi Ngai Chan Center for Virology and Vaccine Research (CVVR)
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Spatial transcriptomics
4:004:1010 minute break
Panel Discussion I
4:105:10 Round-table Discussion

Friday, May 12th

Session 4: Applications II
12:0012:05 Eduardo Reategui The Ohio State University Day 2 Introduction
12:0512:35 Eduardo Reategui The Ohio State University Analysis of extracellular RNA in vesicles and viruses from complex biofluids for disease detection
12:351:05 John Tigges Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Detection and enrichment of miRNA in extracellular vesicles by nano-flow cytometry
1:051:15 10 minute break
Session 5: Probe Design, Instrumentation, and Methods II
1:151:45 Tijana Talisman Dept. of Cancer Biology and Molecular Medicine
Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope
Single extracellular vesicle nanoscopy: a novel assay to characterize EV cargoes
1:452:15 Daniel Chiu Depts. of Chemistry and Bioengineering
University of Washington
Instrumentation and probes for high-throughput multiplexed single nucleic acid analysis
2:152:2510 minute break
Panel Discussion II
2:253:25 Panel Discussion