The MyRNA Diagnostics project, which aims to develop a kit to diagnose and improve the monitoring of depression from a blood test, was rewarded by the magazine Exame Informática with first place in the Innovation Category in the "Best of Technological Portugal" award. The kit is being developed by an i3S team of three researchers - Maria Inês Almeida, Susana Santos and Inês Alencastre - that resulted from a collaboration between the i3S and a team of psychiatrists from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP).

According to the editorial team of Exame Informática, MyRNA Diagnostics (Translation of Molecular Biomarkers in Diagnosis of Diseases) was awarded for being "very innovative" and "really relevant to our daily lives", since depression reaches 300 million people throughout the world.

The diagnosis of depression is currently based on clinical interviews and there are no complementary diagnostic tests that are routinely applied in the clinic. The team presented a business idea based on a kit to diagnose depression through a blood test, which has been developed as part of a collaboration between the group Microenvironments for New Therapies of i3S, led by Mário Barbosa, and a team of psychiatrists from FMUP, led by Rui Coelho. This project is funded by the NORTE2020 program and is also supported by the Centro Hospitalar do Tâmega e Sousa and Dr. Orlando Von Doellinger.

"The diagnosis of depression is mostly based on clinical interviews. Mental health care providers feel the need to develop sensitive and specific methods to improve the percentage of patients with depression (>300 million worldwide) receiving effective treatment (<50%)", stresses Inês Almeida.

The project MyRNA Diagnostics, says Susana Santos, "intends to develop a kit that detects and quantifies a specific panel of molecular biomarkers in a blood sample, which will allow a diagnosis based on quantitative methods and better monitoring of the disease".

"The results of our product will be analyzed by an algorithm and supplied within 24 to 48 hours after the blood collection. The solution allows clinicians to base their therapeutic decisions on a quantifiable biological test, decreasing excessive prescribing, improving diagnostic accuracy and allowing disease monitoring during therapy", explains researcher Inês Alencastre.

For the researchers, this prize means the recognition of research that has been developed and an incentive to continue this work.