A laboratory process that used to take investigators in the VCU School of Dentistry’s Philips Institute of Oral and Craniofacial Molecular Biology two or three weeks is now complete in 24 hours.

Thanks to an HEETF-funded PCR system for real-time analysis of gene expression, researchers are fast-forwarding their study of disease within the oral cavity, head and neck. Equally important as speed is the unit’s precision, says Andrew Yeudall, BDS, Ph.D., interim director of the Philips Institute.

When the two aspects are combined, the level of quality research is significantly elevated, yielding a collection of more accurate findings with potential results for health care.

“This opens a lot of doors to our students,” says Yeudall. “It exposes them to cutting-edge technology that isn’t often available to them at this level and in this environment.”

Polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, is a laboratory technique that exponentially amplifies a portion or fragment of DNA. The $50,000 PCR system has been in place since late 2005 and has allowed investigators to study samples at an “almost single-cell level,” says Yeudall. This tight focus is especially effective when tracking potential malignancies, and early detection can literally mean the difference between life and death, he says.

To explain how the unit works, Yeudall first talks about the nature of his team’s work. Investigators here are studying head and neck squamous cell carcinoma — malignant tumors of the lip, mouth, nasal cavity, salivary glands, sinuses, throat and larynx. In addition to monitoring diseased tissue, the team is interested in predictive markers and strategies for blocking the spread of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas.

Known as HNSCC, head and neck cancer is one of the most prevalent categories of malignancy in the U.S. and can cause significant pain and disfigurement in addition to difficulties with speech, breathing and swallowing. The National Cancer Institute estimates that more than $3 billion is spent each year in the U.S. to treat head and neck cancers. Because most of these cancers are highly curable if caught early, diagnostic research is critical, making anything that both expedites and hones research in this field an indispensable resource.

Yeudall explains that in order to quantify gene expression at such infinitesimal levels from a small number of cells, it’s necessary to amplify the starting material. PCR accomplishes this portion of the process, but it’s first necessary to reverse transcribe RNA into a DNA copy. The reverse transcription step can be combined with the PCR step, speeding up the procedure. This PCR technology measures DNA amplification in real time and allows investigators to bypass much of the optimization associated with semi-quantitative PCR methodology.

Measuring gene expression used to take up to three weeks and required the use of radioactive probes but with the efficiency of the unit, it’s now closer to a one-day process, Yeudall says.

Additionally, by virtue of the way the unit operates, it can screen a number of samples quickly and use much smaller amounts of the starting samples. This also means that researchers can get more information from tissues, an especially helpful prospect when tissue samples are limited, adds Yeudall.

All of this translates to several medically exciting offshoots, including the potential for earlier detection and enhanced treatment options.

Related to treatments, Yeudall sees the potential to utilize the instrument to help better indicate how a tumor might progress so that treatment could be specifically tailored for the expected outcome.

“In that way, it’s very exciting and should help us combat the disease more effectively,” Yeudall says.