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ARTICLE | Tools & Techniques

NCATS's extracellular revolution

NIH-funded consortium investigates potential for exRNA biomarkers and therapies

October 1, 2015 7:00 AM UTC

Two years into its five-year run, a $117.5 million NIH-funded consortium established to look for biomarkers and therapies stemming from extracellular RNA (exRNA) research is now moving into its testing and validation phase, after completing proof-of-principle studies and discovering candidate exRNAs for a host of diseases and conditions.

The Extracellular RNA Communication Consortium (ERCC), which connects researchers at 23 research institutions, began awarding a pool of five-year grants in 2013 through the Common Fund, NIH's cross-institute program to identify areas with the potential for high impact in a short period of time. The effort is led by NIH's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) with contributions from four other NIH institutes...