Note to Subscribers

RNAi News will be hiatus June 29 through July 3. The next issue of the newsletter will be sent to subscribers on July 9.

Calando Finds Partner for Non-RNAi Technology, Has No Plans to Restart In-House RNAi Programs

While the deal provides Calando parent firm Arrowhead Research with a measure of much-needed financial relief, the company indicated that it still has no plans to restart on its own any of its RNAi programs, which were halted due to financial constraints and have been on the block for some time.

RXi Expects to Select Lead Rx Candidate by Year-End, Could Tap Self-Delivering Molecule

Specific details about the self-delivering molecules have not been made public, in part because RXi isn't entirely clear yet on how the technology works.

Opko Invests in New Technologies, Raising Questions About the Company's Focus on RNAi

Although RNAi had long been a key aspect of Opko's technology portfolio, the failure of its AMD drug in phase III and a series of recent investments in other technologies raises questions about its interest in siRNA drugs.

Target Genetics to Cut About 30 Staffers as It Continues Searching for Cash

The company said that the move would allow it to continue operations into August. Previously, it said it only had enough cash to fund itself to the end of June.

MDRNA Amends Deal for UNA Tech to Eliminate Payments to Licensor, Regains Nasdaq Compliance

Under the new arrangement, MDRNA is no longer obligated to make any future payments to RiboTask, which retains the rights to make, sell, and sublicense the UNA technology for research and diagnostic purposes.

Q&A: U Maryland's James Mixson Discusses Developing Novel Polyplexes for siRNA Delivery

In addition to the work done in his lab, Mixson has been collaborating with a number of RNAi drug developers, including Intradigm and Sirnaomics.

IP Update

USPTO Publishes One Patent, Thirteen Patent Applications Related to RNAi

Mirna Releases Preclinical Data on miRNA-Replacement Rx, Aims for Clinic in 2011

The release of the data comes on the heels of a publication in Cell showing that therapeutic miRNA delivery could suppress tumorigenesis in a mouse model of liver cancer, which Mirna's CEO said bolsters the company's strategy.

Genesis R&D 'Likely' to Form New Subsidiary to Develop Single-Stranded RNAi Tech

The cash-strapped shop is betting that such a unit would embolden investors to back Genesis' ssRNAi technology independent of the company's other RNAi programs.

MDRNA Repays $5.5M Loan to GE Capital

The repayment marks the company's latest move toward overcoming financial woes that have persisted since it was created last summer out of now-defunct nasal drug-delivery shop Nastech Pharmaceutical

Cenix Adds Respiratory, Inflammatory Diseases to RNAi-Screening Deal With AstraZeneca

Cenix said it will complete at least three projects for AstraZeneca that combine multi-pass genome-scale screens to uncover novel therapeutic target candidates, with detailed validation analyses using a number of primary human cell types."

Q&A: Ghent University's Jo Vandesompele Discusses New Way to Normalize miRNA RT-qPCR Data

The method, which is detailed in the current issue of Genome Biology, involves using the mean expression value of all expressed miRNAs in a given sample.