3base™ Explained

3base™ Explained

Patents / IP

Clinical Applications

3base™ Explained

Human Genetic Signatures has developed a disruptive technology for molecular diagnostics developers and clinical diagnostic testing laboratories. Our novel 3base™ nucleic acid Simplification technology provides competitive advantages over current methods by:

• The ability to perform multiplexed detection of an unparalleled number and variation of targets in a single reaction
  
• Cost effectiveness, open platform and low set up costs
  
• Affordable licensing terms

This technology will function in microbial, human, plant and animal genetics, with respective applications in human infection, food safety testing, industrial batch contamination, cancer progression and crop/veterinary sciences.

'4-to-3' Simplification
Human Genetic Signatures' 3base™ technology enables PCR detection of any microorganism (or mammalian) DNA / RNA. It works by modifying the 4 usual DNA base pairs (A, C, T, G) into only 3 base pairs (A, T, G) via a novel, patented approach to bisulphite conversion. The resultant simplified sequences are non-natural, but perfectly fuctional for PCR. 

Our Principal Technology - 3base™
Our scientists are pioneers of the bisulphite method used for distinguishing methylated cytosine (Methyl C) residues from unmethylated cytosine (C) residues in DNA. Since methylation of cytosines is an important determinant of whether or not any gene is active or inactive, this technology is of growing importance in screening for diseases with a complex genetic component such as cancer, embryonic development and in stem cell technology.

The technology not only serves to identify methylation patterns in the DNA, it can also be used to simplify DNA sequences more generally, particularly in lower organisms. In unmethylated DNA, the bisulphite method converts all cytosines (C) ultimately into (T), so that C’s disappear from the sequence all together, resulting in the conversion of a 4 base pair sequence into a 3 base pair sequence of only  A’s, T’s and G’s. We refer to this as ‘simplification’. Importantly, this new 3 base pair sequence is in effect a synthetic genome that does not exist in the natural world, thereby providing a strong argument for freedom to operate using 3base™ assays.

Being able to perform DNA simplification along these lines has profound ramifications: 

• It reduces rates of false diagnosis while screening DNA with degenerate probes 
• It falls outside most existing patents pertaining to traditional genomic diagnosis

With these points in mind, our diagnostics programme is directed down three paths:

• Non-methylation genomic diagnosis of microbial pathogens (infectious diseases)
• Diagnosis of DNA methylation changes in genes (disease progression)
• The development of detection platforms compatible with simplified genomes
  

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