An international research team led by the University of Vienna in Austria has successfully developed an RNA construction module with higher chemical reactivity and photosensitivity, which can significantly shorten the production time of RNA chips for biotechnology and medical research. The production time of these chips can be reduced by half, and the efficiency can be increased by 7 times. The research findings were published on July 31st in the journal Science Advances. About 40 years ago, a method for chemically synthesizing DNA and RNA was developed, using phosphoramidite chemistry to synthesize any sequence from DNA or RNA building blocks. By using these special chemical building blocks, nucleic acid chains can be gradually assembled. Each building block comes with a chemical 'protective group' that prevents unnecessary reactions. This chemical method is also used in the production of microchips, which simultaneously synthesize and analyze massive sequences on a solid surface the size of a fingernail. However, due to the poor stability of RNA, the application of this technology to RNA microchips faces great difficulties. The team from the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Vienna has collaborated with the Max Muselon Institute for Biomolecules at the University of Montpellier in France to develop a novel RNA construction module that can greatly shorten the production time of RNA chips. The full-size high-density RNA microchip can accommodate up to 780000 unique RNA sequences, each occupying an area of approximately 14 × 14 μ m2. The paper introduces a study on RNA aptamers (small oligonucleotides that specifically bind to target molecules). The researchers selected two "luminescent" aptamers that produce fluorescence when combined with dyes and synthesized thousands of variants of aptamers on the chip. One experiment is sufficient to obtain data for all variants simultaneously, which opens the way for identifying improved aptamers with better diagnostic properties. In the rapidly developing field of non-invasive molecular diagnostics, high-quality RNA chips are particularly valuable. RNA aptamers will be one of its most direct applications, such as being able to track hormone levels in real-time or monitor other biomarkers directly from sweat or saliva. (New Society)