FBB Biomed Files Provisional Patent Application to Decode the Dark Genome

Application covers regulatory RNA transcripts from the largely uncharacterized 47% of the human genome, with uses in drug development and diagnostics.

CORALVILLE, IA, UNITED STATES, November 5, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — FBB Biomed, the RNA Systems Intelligence company, today announced that it has filed a provisional patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office covering long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) transcripts from the largely uncharacterized 47% of the human genome. The application was filed on November 4, 2026, which establishes the company’s priority date. The application covers the characterization and assay of these transcript loci, and their diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Because these transcripts may act upstream in the inflammatory cascade, they could serve both as biomarkers that flag inflammation and as targets for therapies designed to stop it closer to its source. By measuring inflammation biomarkers earlier in the cascade than the downstream proteins that conventional assays detect, FBB Biomed aims to help drug developers find trial participants with “silent inflammation”: significant inflammation without overt symptoms.

The company expects the application to underpin a new class of blood-based measurements for monitoring, stratifying, and selecting participants in clinical trials.

Reading the uncharacterized half of the genome

The human genome has about 3 billion DNA letters. Only about 1.5% code is for protein, and roughly half are repeats. The remaining 47% is largely unique, non-coding sequences. It produces tens of thousands of RNA transcripts, most of which have no known function. Many of these transcripts help regulate when, where, and how strongly genes are turned on, the regulatory biology that sits upstream of inflammation and disease.

FBB Biomed’s approach decodes the other half of the genome through its RNA Systems Intelligence platform. The company quantifies RNA from blood, but it measures far more transcripts than conventional methods, including the uncharacterized transcripts from the non-coding genome. With more transcripts in view, the company can find more markers of the regulatory biology that drives inflammation upstream. The work draws on FBB Biomed’s blood RNA library, which spans neurodegenerative, autoimmune, cancer, and post-infectious conditions, as well as healthy controls.

What it means for clinical trials

Trials can fail because the wrong participants are enrolled or the right signal is never measured. Conventional inflammation markers, such as high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), may miss participants with silent inflammation.

FBB Biomed’s platform gives trial sponsors a per-participant readout from a standard blood draw:
• Longitudinal monitoring: track each participant’s response across serial visits, enabling sponsors to distinguish responders from non-responders.
• Participant selection: identify trial participants whose RNA profiles reflect the biology a drug is designed to target, including those with silent inflammation that conventional markers may miss, and exclude those with late-stage disease.
• Target engagement: show whether a drug is changing that biology, participant by participant, early in a study.
FBB Biomed intends to offer the platform as a measurement service inside sponsor protocols and to license specific targets by field of use.

“For thirty years, the field treated the uncharacterized half of the genome as junk,” said Howard Urnovitz, PhD, CEO of FBB Biomed. “Reading that other half lets us see inflammation further upstream and turns dark matter into something you can measure. For drug developers, it means seeing which trial participants are silently inflamed, and whether a drug is reaching them, all from a single blood draw.”
About FBB Biomed

FBB Biomed is the RNA Systems Intelligence company that combines next-generation sequencing with machine learning to read inflammation and disease biology from blood. CEO and co-founder Dr. Howard Urnovitz is a pioneer of the genomic liquid biopsy and is now bringing that concept to neurology. FBB Biomed partners with drug developers to monitor and stratify participants in clinical trials. Learn more at FBBbio.com.
Media contact: Howard Urnovitz, info@fbbbio.com

Forward-looking statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about FBB Biomed’s patent filings, technology, and business plans. FBB Biomed undertakes no obligation to update these statements. A provisional patent application does not itself issue as a patent, and there is no assurance that any patent will issue or that issued claims will cover the company’s products.

Howard B Urnovitz
FBB Biomed
info@fbbbio.com
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