PhD student working on test systems for spinal cord injuries

Davran Sabirov won 1 million rubles in the Student Startup competition.

His project is titled ‘Test systems for diagnostics of neurotraumas and their prognosis’.

Sabirov explains, “Every year, about half a million people suffer spinal cord injuries and lose sensitivity and motor function. Medical resonance imaging is used to analyze the state of the spine and cerebrospinal fluid. However, tomography results can often be ambivalent. There is a need to search for potential biomarkers as a diagnostic tool in patients with spinal cord injuries. In this regard, we are evaluating the transcriptomic profile of CSF in patients with spinal cord injuries. Among the known post-transcriptional regulators, microRNAs are of the greatest importance. Therefore, the study of the microRNA profile in the cerebrospinal fluid in normal conditions and in the case of spinal cord injury is a relevant research with an applied focus.”

As a result, a highly specific test system for spinal cord injuries should be produced.

“First, a biobank of cerebrospinal fluid and blood serum of patients with spinal cord injury at different stages of the disease was created. Now this bank has more than 250 samples. The transcriptome profile in the CSF of patients with spinal cord injury was also analyzed and a bioinformatics analysis of the obtained data was carried out,” he concludes.

Now, the grant funding will be allocated for a continuation of Sabirov’s research.