Tapping into the potential of cilial proteins as vascular injury biomarkers with GenScript antibody services

Dr. Ramani Ramchandran is a professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin conducting research at the Developmental Vascular Biology Program within the Children's Research Institute. His research aims to gain a deeper insight into how the brain’s vascular system develops. A significant part of his work explores the essential role that endothelial cells, equipped with cilia, a microtubule-based structure play in early development and maintaining the integrity and normal function of these blood vessels. Dr. Ramchandran is also the President and Founder of CIAN, Inc., a startup company aiming to leverage learnings on the biology of cilia to identify signatures of vascular damage relevant to various diseases and brain injuries.

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CIAN, Inc. is developing biomarkers for vascular injury diagnosis and prognosis, and we were interested in developing antibodies against select proteins expressed in a microtubule-based organelle called cilia.

- Ramani Ramchandran, Medical College of Wisconsin

Project’s Critical Challenge

Ramchandran and colleagues are keen on fully understanding the ciliogenesis process and functional role of cilia, thin hair-like microtubule-based organelles, on the surface of endothelial cells lining blood vessels. Interestingly they found that in the brain vasculature, two cilia, rather than the conventional single primary cilium, project from each endothelial cell. Their studies have also allowed them to identify molecules, such as PAK2-ARL13B proteins, involved in ciliogenesis in the brain vasculature, which are also implicated in its stability.

The establishment of CIAN, Inc. stems from the desire to harness their newfound knowledge of how cilia-derived molecules may be correlated with vascular health. Their studies in animal models and in vitro have revealed the vulnerability of cilia under conditions of high shear stress. Notably, in disease states such as sickle cell disease, where strokes and damage to blood vessels are prevalent, Ramachandran and colleagues observed a corresponding increase in ciliary proteins.

Access to advanced technology for protein expression is a challenge in furthering their path toward harnessing cilia-derived proteins for diagnostic and prognostic purposes. Therefore, the CIAN, Inc. team is relying on GenScript’s expertise in the mammalian expression of difficult-to-make target proteins.