Science

In the human body about 10¹¹-10¹²cells die each day primarily as a consequence of physiological programs for tissue and organ maintenance, but also as a result of disease processes. Together, these dying and dead cells contain more than 1 gram of DNA, which is mostly degraded into short fragments by specific enzymes.

However, a small proportion of this DNA escapes complete degradation and appears in the bloodstream. Scientists at Xenomics were the first to discover that a portion of this circulating DNA crosses the kidney barrier and can be found in the urine (Transrenal DNA, Tr-DNA) in a form of 150-200 bp fragments. This simple yet remarkable discovery that genetic information from various cells throughout the body is present in urine opens the possibility for the development of new, noninvasive techniques for molecular diagnostics and genetic testing.

Discovery of Tr-DNA creates the basis for development of new tests in the areas of prenatal genetic testing, oncology, infectious diseases, organ transplantation, and others. Quantitative measurement of specific marker concentrations can be used for disease monitoring.

To get further insight into the scientific foundation of our technology please see Publications