A new RNAi Center at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology will advance scientific efforts in identifying the specific genes involved in causing cancer and other diseases. Utilizing a Nobel Prize–winning technology known as RNA interference (RNAi), the Institute’s new RNAi Center will be a catalyst for accelerating discovery of new therapies against a variety of diseases. The center is one of a small, select group of dedicated RNAi facilities worldwide.
According to Mitchell Kronenberg, PhD, president and chief scientific officer of the La Jolla Institute and co-principal investigator at the RNAi Center, “Our Center will focus the collective talents of an exemplary group of RNAi researchers on understanding the genetics behind disease processes of all kinds, and will use that knowledge toward developing new therapies to treat disease.”
Because it allows for developing new therapies for cancer and other diseases based on silencing specific genes, RNAi has been asserted as a revolutionary technology. Its discoverers were awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
Sonia Sharma, PhD, and scientific director of the RNAi Center explained, “RNAi lets us explore the function of each gene, so that we can determine how it fits into the disease process.”
According to Dr Sharman, when using RNAi, individual genes can be deactivated one at a time, thus allowing researchers to determine which functions the gene control. Once it is known which gene is a key contributor to a certain disease process, researchers can make the gene a target for drug development.
Based on the earliest RNAi research, clinical trials have already been initiated in the U.S. for several diseases, including leukemia.