Cyntellect Awarded $500,000 Grant to Develop siRNA Transfection Technology
Cyntellect said this week that it has received about $500,000 from the National Science Foundation to further develop its laser-based siRNA transfection technology.
The technology, called LEAP for laser-enabling analysis and processing, uses a laser to temporarily permeabilize cells so that a variety of molecules, including siRNAs, can be transfected via a process termed opto-injection. The system's laser can also be used to destroy untransfected cells, so that researchers end up with a pure set of transfected cells.
SR Pharma Reports Preliminary Year-End Results
SR Pharma released last week preliminary financial results for 2005, reporting a pre-tax loss of £3.6 million ($6.5 million) on its £7.5 million acquisition of RNAi drugs shop Atugen last July (see RNAi News, 7/29/2005).
SR Pharma said it had £9.1 million in cash at the end of 2005, compared with £3.1 million at the end of 2004, reflecting a £10 million round of financing that closed in July.
Galapagos Inks Chemistry Services Deals with Indus, ProCitius
Galapagos said last week that it has signed chemistry outsourcing deals with Indus Biosciences and ProCitius.
According to Galapagos, both firms will carry put the chemistry services for BioFocus, with an option to provide support for client projects conducted by the BioFocus DPI Medicinal Chemistry division.
Additional terms were not disclosed.
"These strategic outsourcing agreements … complement our acquisition of DPI's drug discovery operations," Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos, said in a statement.