Journal de génomique clinique et médicale

Present and Future RNA-based Approaches to Medical Genomics

Abstract

Robert Penchovsky

Nucleic acids-based technology is emerging as a valuable field that integrates research from science and technology to create novel nanodevices and nanostructures with various applicationsin modern nanotechnology. Nowadays, applicationsof RNA-based technologyare employed in biomedical and pharmaceutical research, biosensoring, nanopharmaceutics and others. It has been proven that RNA isa very suitable medium for selfassembly of diverse nanostructures, catalytic nanodevices and cell delivery systems.At the same time, genomics is becoming increasingly valuable for modern medicine due to the advancements made by second generation sequencing technologies. In this review, I discuss various applications of designer ribozymes and diverse RNAbased approaches to medical genomics. The areas discussed include RNA-based approaches for molecular sensoring and diagnostics, antibacterial drug discovery, exogenous control of gene expression, and gene silencing. These approaches havebecomepossible due to the advancement of various methods for engineering functional RNAsas well asthe discoveries made in RNA biology. Furthermore, different RNA-based antisense technologies are reviewed together with methods for nucleic acid delivery to the cell. The research that has been done so far in the field of RNA engineering hasa far-reaching impact on medical genomics, which isthe main focus of this review.