IDT secures funding for new gene silencing research
Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) has been awarded $99,750 from the National Institutes of Health ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) funding to continue work on its research project ‘gene silencing with U1 Adapter oligonucleotides.’ As a new class of synthetic nucleic acids, the U1 adapters are capable of down-regulating the expression of genes of interest at the pre-mRNA stage, via a mechanism of action distinct from antisense or siRNA. This innovative new technology is based on oligos annealing to a specific region within the 3’-terminal exon of a gene to inhibit pre-mRNA processing and subsequent gene expression and can successfully silence even RNAi refractory genes.
The novel mechanism utilized by the U1 adapters enable it to be used additively with existing gene technologies, or individually to target genes that have not responded well to RNAi-based techniques. The work will be performed in collaboration with Drs. Sam Gunderson and Rafal Goraczniak at SilaGene (Hillsborough, NJ), a newly formed biotechnology company working on U1 Adaptor therapeutics.
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