Unlocking the Epigenetic Layers of Precision Medicine
DNA methylation reveals cell identity and tissue of origin, while naturally occurring RNA modifications provide insights into dynamic gene regulation. Both hold enormous potential for precision medicine, but accessing this information from limited clinical samples remains challenging.
AlidaBio develops breakthrough technologies that overcome these barriers, enabling highly sensitive analysis of DNA methylation and RNA modifications from precious biological samples.
Unlocking the Epigenetic Layers of Precision Medicine
DNA methylation reveals cell identity and tissue of origin, while naturally occurring RNA modifications provide insights into dynamic gene regulation. Both hold enormous potential for precision medicine, but accessing this information from limited clinical samples remains challenging.
AlidaBio develops breakthrough technologies that overcome these barriers, enabling highly sensitive analysis of DNA methylation and RNA modifications from precious biological samples.
Beyond the Genome: Revealing What Other Omics Miss
DNA Methylation — Revealing Cell Identity and Tissue of Origin
DNA methylation helps establish and maintain cellular identity, creating distinctive signatures across tissues and cell types. These signatures provide powerful biomarkers for cancer detection and tissue-of-origin analysis, particularly in liquid biopsy. However, detecting them can be challenging when tumor-derived DNA is extremely scarce. Amplifying DNA while preserving its methylation patterns opens new opportunities for detecting rare, disease-associated methylation signatures in limited clinical samples.
RNA Modifications — Revealing Dynamic Cellular States
Critical transitions in biology—from immune activation and tumor plasticity to stress response and acquired resistance—can occur without changes to DNA sequence and may not be fully captured by RNA abundance alone.
RNA modifications encompass a diverse range of naturally occurring chemical changes, including RNA methylation, pseudouridylation, and RNA editing. These modifications provide an additional functional readout of cellular state. By measuring them alongside gene expression in real-world clinical samples, AlidaBio enables researchers and partners to discover signatures linked to disease biology, treatment response, and patient stratification.
Applications Across Disease, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics
DNA methylation and RNA modifications provide complementary insights into cell identity, disease biology, and treatment response. Advanced technologies for accessing these molecular signatures open new opportunities in biomarker discovery, diagnostics, and therapeutics.
Liquid Biopsy and Early Cancer Detection
DNA methylation provides tissue-specific signatures that can reveal the presence and origin of cancer, even when tumor-derived DNA is scarce.
- Detect cancer-associated methylation signatures in circulating cell-free DNA
- Identify tissue of origin using cell-type-specific methylation patterns
- Explore strategies to improve detection of rare tumor-derived DNA through methylation-preserving amplification
Biomarker Discovery and Translational Research
Add complementary DNA methylation and RNA modification information to biomarker discovery and translational studies
- Discover signatures associated with cellular identity, activity, and disease state
- Characterize molecular responses to therapeutic intervention and disease progression
- Identify candidate signatures for patient stratification
AI and Multimodal Foundation Models
Foundational models require rich molecular data to learn the regulatory principles underlying cellular behavior.
- Add DNA methylation and RNA modification information as complementary biological feature layers for model training
- Improve prediction of cell state, regulatory responses, and molecular phenotypes
- Enable models that integrate genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, and epitranscriptomic information
Immune Cell Activation and Exhaustion
DNA methylation and RNA modifications provide insights into immune cell identity, activation, and regulation.
- Resolve immune cell identity and activation states not fully explained by transcription
- Study T cell exhaustion, cytokine signaling, and immune modulation
- Identify functional biomarkers of immune response
Cancer Cell State and Therapy Response
Tumors evolve through dynamic changes in cellular state and DNA methylation patterns that contribute to heterogeneity and acquired resistance.
- Track transitions such as dedifferentiation and therapy resistance
- Study regulatory mechanisms underlying tumor heterogeneity
- Discover biomarkers linked to treatment response
The Power of EpiPlex
RNA modifications and gene expression. Real world samples. One integrated platform.
EpiPlex uses molecular encoding during library preparation to convert RNA modifications into sequencing-detectable signals while measuring standard RNA-seq expression. It works with low RNA input (20 ng polyA RNA or 250 ng total RNA), clinical and degraded samples including FFPE and RNA from liquid biopsy. EpiScout makes it easy to move from raw sequencing data to the identification of genes and pathways most differentially modified at the RNA level.
Turnkey Profiling
Uni-Mod, Duo-Mod, or Tri-Mod services. Send samples, receive EpiScout™ results.
RNA modifications in biology and disease
Alida Biosciences’ technologies are designed to unleash the transformative potential of epitranscriptomics in basic research and applications in RNA-centered diagnostics and therapeutics. Proximity barcoding translates sequencing-silent RNA modifications into NGS-readable barcodes
Recent Media and Blog Posts
RNA Mods & Immunology Blog 1
RNA modifications such as m6A and A-to-I editing have critical roles in the regulation of immune cell function, inflammatory signaling,...
Pseudouridine: Minor Isomer, Major Consequences for RNA Function
Pseudouridine: Minor Isomer, Major Consequences for RNA Function Pseudouridine is the most abundant RNA modification and one of the most...
Alida Biosciences Launches EpiPlex® Tri-Mod™ Service for Simultaneous Profiling of Three Key mRNA Modifications
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STORM Therapeutics and AlidaBio Announce Strategic Collaboration to Accelerate Development of Cancer Therapies Targeting RNA Modifications
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Beyond Transcriptomics: RNA Modifications Shape Cancer Progression
RNA modifications such as m6A, A-to-I editing, and pseudouridine influence RNA stability, translation, splicing, and immune recognition. This article explains...
Beyond the Genome – The Story of Epitranscriptomics
In this insightful interview, Byron Purse (Alida Biosciences co-founder) and Pete Dedon (MIT) dive into the growing impact of...
AlidaBio Introduces the EpiPlex™ Duo-Mod™ Service for Concurrent m6A and Inosine Mapping with Integrated RNA Expression Profiling
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RNA Secrets Unveiled: Byron Purse’s Biotech Breakthrough Journey
In this episode of the Life Science Success podcast, Dr. Don Davis talks with Dr. Byron Purse, professor of chemistry...
EpiPlex™ Technology in Action
Share this post on LinkedIn The EpiPlex™ Platform delivers a streamlined, end-to-end workflow for high-resolution detection and relative...
The Power of Inosine: How RNA Editing Shapes the Transcriptome
Author: Zachary Miles Senior Director of Protein Engineering Share this post on LinkedIn One of the most transformative post-transcriptional modifications...
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