Sheng Zhong | Professor
University of california san diego

Sheng Zhong, Professor, University of california san diego

Sheng Zhong is a Professor of Bioengineering at UC San Diego and the founder and CEO of Genemo, Inc. Genemo is a biotechnology company focused on pioneering exRNA-based diagnostics for early disease detection and personalized medicine. Our proprietary SILVER-seq technology analyzes extracellular RNA from a single drop of blood, providing a highly sensitive and minimally invasive alternative to traditional diagnostic methods.

Appearances:



Festival of Biologics Day 2 @ 16:30

Toward a Blood-Based Biomarker for Early Detection of Alzheimer's Disease

The extracellular RNAs (exRNAs) from human biofluid have recently been systematically characterized. However, the correlations of biofluid exRNA levels and human diseases remain largely untested. Here, considering the unmet need for presymptomatic biomarkers of sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD), we leveraged the recently developed SILVER-seq (small-input liquid volume extracellular RNA sequencing) technology to analyze exRNA from a longitudinal collection of human plasma samples. When we required statistical significance with multiple testing adjustments, phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH) was the only gene that exhibited consistent upregulation in AD brain transcriptomes from 3 independent cohorts and an increase in AD plasma as compared to controls. We validated PHGDH's serum exRNA and brain protein expression increases in AD by using 5 additional research cohorts. Furthermore, human hippocampal PHGDH protein expression level is reversely correlated with the person's cognitive ability. These data suggest the potential utilities of plasma exRNA levels for screening sporadic AD. 

Sheng Zhong, Professor, University of california san diego
last published: 25/Mar/25 09:15 GMT

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