NEW YORK, Oct. 30 - Alnylam, of Cambridge, Mass., has formed a collaboration with researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., to develop an RNA interference-based drug that suppresses genes over-expressed in people with Parkinson's disease, the company said today.
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Under the collaboration, Alnylam will define and synthesize RNA interference - or RNAi -- compounds, and will provide them to the Mayo Clinic researchers, which have recently identified a causal pathway in Parkinson's disease and published these findings in Science. Alnylam will also fund research at the Mayo Clinic for development of the drug that expresses a gene in the pathway, alpha-synuclein, the company said. The Mayo Clinic researchers will test the RNAi compounds and test them for in vitro and in vivo efficacy.
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"This collaboration with Alnylam creates the possibility of previously unimagined therapeutic advances for Parkinson's patients," Matthew Farrer, assistant professor of neuroscience and the director of a neurogenetics laboratory at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., said in a statement.
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