RNAi Consortium to accelerate genetic research
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (March 16, 2005) — Whitehead
Institute has joined ten other leading biomedical organizations
in an $18 million, three-year public-private consortium
that will create a comprehensive library of gene inhibitors
to be made available to the entire scientific community.
Based on the method of RNA interference (RNAi), this
library will give scientists worldwide the tools to
knock down expression of virtually all human and mouse
genes, accelerating the growth of basic knowledge of
gene function in normal physiology and disease.
The RNAi Consortium (TRC) is based on a scientific collaboration
among principal investigators at six Boston-area research
institutions: Nir Hacohen (Massachusetts General Hospital,
Harvard Medical School, formerly at Whitehead); William
Hahn (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical
School, formerly at Whitehead); Eric Lander (Broad Institute);
David Root (Broad Institute, formerly at Whitehead);
David Sabatini (Whitehead Institute); Sheila Stewart
(Washington University, formerly at Whitehead), and
Brent Stockwell (Columbia University, formerly at Whitehead).
TRC also involves five member organizations: Pharmaceutical
companies Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Company,
and Novartis; research product manufacturer Sigma-Aldrich;
and a Taiwan government-sponsored academic consortium.
“This consortium is an example of how scientists
can come together across multiple institutions to create
a large-scale resource,” says David Sabatini,
Associate Member at Whitehead. The tools it generates
“will allow scientists to explore mammalian biology
for the next five to ten years in ways that weren’t
possible before.”
RNAi provides a means of dissecting complex biological
processes by switching off genes one at a time. The
method is expected to revolutionize drug development
and discovery by providing critical insights into the
mechanism underlying human disease and accelerating
development of medical treatments for cancer, metabolic,
inflammatory, infectious, neurological and other types
of diseases.
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