Novel System Can Determine Telomere Dysregulation In Less Than 3 Hours

A research team led by the NUS Institute for Health Innovation & Technology has developed a novel method to measure the absolute telomere length of individual telomeres in less than three hours. This novel telomere profiling method can process up to 48 samples from low amounts (<1 ng) of DNA. Their work was published in Science Advances. 

"Our innovation could greatly enhance the speed of diagnosis and simultaneously provide critical telomere information for age-related diseases and cancers. Such a clinically reliable tool that is able to provide accurate telomere profiling will allow for precision therapy and targeted treatments for patients," explains first author Cheow Lih Feng. 

Existing methods for telomere measurements in clinical settings are often time-consuming and require skilled operators. To overcome these challenges, the team developed a unique system called Single Telomere Absolute-length Rapid (STAR) assay.

This method allows for individual telomere molecules to be first distributed into thousands of nanolitre chambers in a microfluidic chip. Then, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of single telomere molecules is performed across all the chambers in a massively parallel manner. Using the STAR assay, scientists can accurately determine the maintenance mechanism for telomeres in cancer cells and obtain a high level of detailed information in the measurements.

“The combination of rapid workflow, scalability, and single-molecule resolution makes our system unique in enabling the use of telomere length distribution as a biomarker in disease and population-wide studies. It will be particularly useful for diagnosing telomere maintenance mechanisms within clinical time scales, to determine personalized, therapeutic, or preventive strategies for patients,” Cheow concludes.