Dharmacon and 10 Research Institutes Establish Global Initiative to Advance Research Using Human-Genom-Wide siRNA Library
Founding Members Include Leading Biomedical Research Institutes in Six Countries
Dharmacon, Inc. announced the Formation of the Genome-Wide RNAi Global Initiative, an alliance of leading international biomedical research centers. The initial goal of the Global Initiative is to accelerate the scientific and medical discoveries made possible by the recent availability of the first complete siRNA library to target genes across the entire human genome.
Genome-wide siRNA libraries have the potential to fundamentally change biological research by dramatically increasing scientists' ability to understand disease mechanisms and facilitating faster new drug discovery and development. The Global Initiative will provide a forum for member institutions to share research protocols, establish experimental standards and develop mechanisms for exchanging and comparing screening data. This ongoing interaction between Global Initiative members is expected to help researchers optimize high-throughput human-genome-wide siRNA screening and accelerate drug discovery.
Global Initiative founding members include The Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research at Princess Margaret Hospital and Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital, both with The University of Toronto; Cancer Research UK (CRUK) funded scientists at the London Research Institute and the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR); The German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ); UNMC Eppley Cancer Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center; Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI); The Scottish Centre for Genomic Technology and Informatics based at the University of Edinburgh Medical School (GTI); University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Yale University. University of Cambridge scientists at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research and MRC Cancer Cell Unit, and The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center are also expected to join the Global Initiative, pending final institutional approval.
The founding members encompass a broad spectrum of biomedical research interests. A number have announced their intention to house the genome-wide siRNA library in central high-throughput screening facilities to increase its availability throughout their organizations, and many will focus their initial efforts on using the library for cancer research.
The membership of the Global Initiative, which is already scientifically and geographically diverse, is expected to expand further as additional not-for-profit research institutions from North America, Europe and Asia join in the coming months. Its first meeting will take place in Boston, on Oct. 17 and 18.
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