NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Scripps Florida Professor Claes Wahlstedt has founded a new firm, called cuRNA, that will develop therapeutics and possibly diagnostic biomarkers based on non-coding RNA technology licensed from the institute.
Wahlstedt’s lab at Scripps Florida, which is part of La Jolla, Calif.-based Scripps Research Institute, has been researching the technology, which has been shown to play a vital role in gene expression, according to Scripps. Wahlestedt recently published a paper in the journal Nature Medicine showing that a specialized form of non-coding RNA was directly linked to increased levels of amyloid plaque in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients.
“We have licensed a fairly broad patent with many different targets in major therapeutic areas that fall under the non-coding RNA umbrella including metabolic disease and cancer,” Wahlestedt said in a statement last week. “These things can be used in a number of important ways — to treat disease or as diagnostic markers or tools.”
Wahlestedt founded cuRNA in June along with Joe Collard, a South Florida business consultant. They have set up operations in the offices of another biosciences firm in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.