MDRNA Expands Bladder Cancer Collaboration with Vancouver Prostate Centre

December 03, 2009

MDRNA said last week that it has extended and expanded its collaboration with the Vancouver Prostate Centre to discover and develop RNAi-based drugs for bladder cancer.

The company said it first began working with VPC in 2008 to investigate the use of its DiLA2 delivery platform and UsiRNA molecules in one of the center's bladder cancer models.

"In light of current results demonstrating efficient delivery and high potency for RNAi, the program will expand to evaluate UsiRNAs targeting other critical pathways in cancer, the impact on tumor biology, tumor growth, and survival rates," MDRNA said.

Earlier this year, MDRNA announced that it had added bladder cancer to its formal pipeline after its collaboration with VPC had yielded positive results in a rodent model of bladder cancer (see RNAi News, 8/6/2009).

MDRNA has said that it could file an investigational new drug application to begin human trials of the bladder cancer therapy next year.

In this issue of RNAi News

Young Investigator Profile

Martin Beck

European Molecular Biology Laborator
Group Leader, Structural and Computational Biology Unit

Macromolecular Assemblies

Martin Beck's research group at EMBL combines biochemical approaches, proteomics and cryo-electron microscopy to study the structure and function of large macromolecular assemblies. The end goals of this work include developing integrated workflows for structure determination of large macromolecular assemblies such as the nuclear pore complex, elucidation of their function through real-time imaging, and ultimately revealing the steps of their assembly and disassembly process.
Blog

Considering a Cloud? Cost Isn't Everything...

Benchmark paper looks at the real cost of the CPU hour on the cloud.

March 19, 2010

Sequencers and Tanks

Nick Loman has updated his map of sequencers and begun a new estimate of sequencers being sold.

March 19, 2010

Cherry Picking Clauses

Andrew Yates wonders how genetic tests can help people make medical decisions if the tests are for research and educational purposes only.

March 19, 2010

Adding More SNPs to Breast Cancer Risk Models Doesn't Help

NCI researchers say breast cancer risk models don't perform better when researchers add common genetic variants linked to the disease.

March 19, 2010
Papers of Note

Sequencing and Analysis of the Hydra Genome
Chapman, Kirkness et al., Nature
An international research collaboration reports their sequencing and analysis of the Hydra magnipapillata genome, and compare it to the genomes of several other organisms. "The Hydra genome has been shaped by bursts of transposable element expansion, horizontal gene transfer, trans-splicing, and simplification of gene structure and gene content that parallel simplification of the Hydra life cycle," the authors write. They team suggests that comparisons of the Hydra genome to the reported sequences of other animals have helped them to elucidate the evolution of several of the organism's characteristics.

GWAS Identifies Risk Loci for Ulcerative Colitis
Abrecht, Wittig et al., Nature Genetics
Researchers present results from a genome-wide association study which identified risk loci at 7q22 and 22q13 for ulcerative colitis. Their analyses included 1,897,764 SNPs from 1,043 UC cases and 1,703 controls from Germany, and six replication panels from different regions in Europe.
People on the Move

Affymetrix has appointed Timothy Barabe to the chief financial officer post. He will run the firm's treasury and financial functions, investor relations, and its information technology departments. Barabe previously was senior VP and CFO at Human Genome Sciences, and he was CFO at Regent Medical. He also has worked in various roles at Novartis, including senior executive positions at CIBA Vision.

Barabe replaces John Batty, who was with Affymetrix for three years.

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Professor Leena Peltonen-Palotie died this week of cancer at her home in Finland, according to the Sanger Institute. Peltonen-Palotie was head of human genetics at Wellcome Trust, and she held appointments at the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard and the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland.
Upcoming Events

Conferences, Meetings & Deadlines

PTEN Pathways & Targets
Mar. 16-20 / Cold Spring Harbor, NY
CSHL

The Complex Life of mRNA: From Synthesis to Decay
Mar. 18-19 / Heidelberg, Germany
EMBL

Perspectives in Clinical Proteomics
Mar. 18-19 / Hinxton, UK
EMBL-EBI-Wellcome Trust

AUTM 2010 Annual Meeting
Mar. 18-20 / New Orleans, La.
Association of University Technology Managers

ABRF 2010
Mar. 20-23 / Sacramento, CA
Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities

Abstract & Registration Deadlines

more

Science
Adding data on 10 genetic variants to non-genetic risk models of breast cancer offers little improvement for predicting breast cancer risk, researchers from the National Cancer Institute and elsewhere concluded following a study of nearly 6,000 women with the disease.
Business
Osmetech has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of stock in the US under the name of its newly proposed parent, GenMark Diagnostics. The firm hopes to raise around $40 million and intends to relocate its headquarters to Pasadena, Calif.
Funding
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute plans to pump $76 million over the next five years into a program aimed at combining cellular tools, molecular profiling, and genomics and integrating them into existing genotypic and clinical phenotypic data on naturally occurring human genetic variation.
Genome Technology Magazine
Check out this month's humor page here:

Search

MDRNA Expands Bladder Cancer Collaboration with Vancouver Prostate Centre

Related Stories

In this issue of RNAi News

Young Investigator Profile

Blog

Papers of Note

People on the Move

Upcoming Events

Science

Business

Funding

Genome Technology Magazine

TechGuides Listings

Poll