Oligonucleotides News and Research

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Oligonucleotides are short sequences of nucleotides (RNA or DNA), typically with twenty or fewer bases. Automated synthesizers allow the synthesis of oligonucleotides up to 160 to 200 bases.

Avecia Biotechnology reaches agreement with Pfizer to market Macugen

Avecia Biotechnology, Inc., a leading provider of drug development and manufacturing services for oligonucleotide therapeutics, has reached agreement with Pfizer Inc. regarding the commercial supply of a key component of Macugen (pegaptanib sodium injection), marketed in the E.U. by Pfizer for the treatment of wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

26 Apr 2010

Mirina closes Versant led Series A-1 financing

Mirina Corporation, a privately held biotechnology company focused on the generation of novel microRNA (miRNA) therapeutics with improved properties, announced today that it has closed a Series A-1 financing. The round was led by new investor Versant Ventures. Previous investors Alexandria Real Estate Equities, ARCH Venture Partners, OVP Venture Partners and WRF Capital also participated in the round. In conjunction with this financing, Brian Atwood, Managing Director of Versant Ventures, will join the Board of Directors.

26 Apr 2010

RXi Pharmaceuticals to present data on rxRNA therapeutic platform development at upcoming conferences

RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company pursuing the development and commercialization of proprietary therapeutics based on RNA interference (RNAi), today announced that senior members of its management will be presenting at upcoming conferences and will highlight critical aspects of the development of RXi's next generation rxRNA™ therapeutic platform as well as specific preclinical data generated with this platform.

24 Apr 2010

Golub Capital provides $12.0M of senior subordinated debt to support recapitalization of IDT

Golub Capital today announced that it has provided $12.0 million of senior subordinated debt to support the recapitalization and ongoing growth of Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc. This transaction marks the first investment made by GC 2009 Mezzanine Partners, L.P., which is Golub Capital's sixth fund dedicated to middle market mezzanine debt financings.

From Integrated DNA Technologies 24 Apr 2010

Sigma Life Science announces global release of CompoZr Targeted Integration Kit

Sigma® Life Science, the innovative biological products and services brand of Sigma-Aldrich®, today announced an extension to its award-winning CompoZr® product offering with the global release of the CompoZr Targeted Integration Kit, AAVS1. This kit provides a powerful method for the controlled transgene integration and expression of any gene in any human cell line using Sigma-Aldrich's proprietary CompoZr Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN) technology.

20 Apr 2010

Radiolabeled hedgehog can differentiate stem-like cancer cells, identify aggressive tumors

At the American Association for Cancer Research 101st Annual Meeting 2010, scientists and clinicians will present more than 6,300 abstracts dealing with innovative aspects of biology, technology and emerging therapies.

19 Apr 2010

New p53 knockout rat model improves timelines for carcinogenicity screening

Sigma Life Science, the innovative biological products and services brand of Sigma-Aldrich, today introduced the world's first p53 'knockout' rat model, an important development that is expected to, due to the rat's closer physiological and metabolic similarity to humans, significantly improve timelines for carcinogenicity screening and reduce time to market for therapeutics.

19 Apr 2010

Regulus Therapeutics' metabolic disease program data presented at Diabetes Keystone Symposium

Regulus Therapeutics Inc. today announced that new data from its metabolic disease program were presented at the "Diabetes" Keystone Symposium held April 12-17 in Whistler, British Columbia. The new pre-clinical research findings showed that therapeutic oligonucleotides targeting microRNA are able to improve insulin resistance and normalize plasma glucose in mouse models of diabetes while having no significant effect on glucose or insulin levels in normal mice.

16 Apr 2010

Sigma Life Science announces latest version of 'Your Favorite Gene Powered By Ingenuity' research portal

Sigma® Life Science, the innovative biological products and services brand of Sigma-Aldrich®, today announced a significant expansion to its web-based biological research portal for exploring dynamic gene-based content, Your Favorite Gene Powered By Ingenuity (http://www.wherebiobegins.com/yfg).

13 Apr 2010

TriLink partners with Cedarlane to enhance distribution of its products in Canada

TriLink BioTechnologies, has entered into an agreement with Cedarlane Corporation, a Canadian based research biotechnology company, for the sale and distribution of its modified nucleoside triphosphates, custom chemistry and oligonucleotide products.

9 Apr 2010

USPTO allows Alnylam Pharmaceuticals' new claims from Woppmann et al. patent series

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced today that the United States Patent Office (USPTO) has allowed a patent (Application No. 10/560,336) for the Woppmann et al. patent series, entitled "Double-stranded ribonucleic acid with increased effectiveness in an organism." The newly allowed patent includes 31 claims broadly covering compositions and methods, including pharmaceutical compositions, for small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), the molecules that mediate RNAi.

8 Apr 2010

Officials of Kylin Therapeutics receive an issued patent from USPTO

Officials of Kylin Therapeutics Inc., a leading RNAi company, announced this week that they received an issued patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

7 Apr 2010

MDA, FFSHR award $200,000 grant for developing FSH dystrophy therapy

The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA), headquartered in Tucson, Ariz., and Friends of FSH Research (FFSHR), based in Kirkland, Wash., has jointly awarded a two-year, $200,000 grant to Dr. Joel Chamberlain, a research assistant professor of medical genetics at the University of Washington. The grant, equally funded by the two organizations, will enable the laboratory led by Dr. Chamberlain to study RNA interference as an investigative and therapeutic tool for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.

7 Apr 2010

Kyto Biopharma enters agreement with Targeted Payload Therapeutics

Kyto Biopharma Inc., is a Florida biotechnology company focused on developing monoclonal antibody and oligonucleotide targeting therapeutics based on a proprietary vitamin B12 platform for the treatment of various forms of cancer.

3 Apr 2010

Cancer research at Georgia Tech: Report

Cancer treatment typically involves surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy or biological therapy. An oncologist may use one therapy or a combination of methods, depending on the type and location of the cancer, whether the disease has spread, the patient's age and general health, and other factors.

3 Apr 2010

Japanese Patent Office grants Alnylam Pharmaceuticals' claims in second patent application for Tuschl II

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced today that the Japanese Patent Office has granted claims in a second patent application (JP Application Number 2006-317758) for the Tuschl II patent series, entitled "RNA Interference Mediating Small RNA Molecules." In May 2008, the Japanese Patent Office granted a related set of claims in the Tuschl II patent series (JP 4 095 895).

31 Mar 2010

GSK, Isis Pharmaceuticals collaborate to develop new therapeutics for rare and serious disease

GlaxoSmithKline and Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today a new strategic alliance that will apply the Isis antisense drug discovery platform to seek out and develop new therapeutics against targets for rare and serious disease, including infectious diseases and some conditions causing blindness.

31 Mar 2010

Systemic treatment of microRNA therapeutic targeting miR-10b inhibits breast cancer metastasis

Regulus Therapeutics Inc. today announced the publication of new results in the journal Nature Biotechnology by Regulus scientists and collaborators. The new study demonstrated that systemic treatment of a microRNA therapeutic targeting microRNA-10b in tumor-bearing mice inhibits breast cancer metastasis. Cancer-related metastasis is a major cause of mortality and current cancer treatments have limited utility suppressing the metastatic spread of cancer cells. microRNA therapeutics targeting miR-10b represent a promising approach for the discovery and development of a novel anti-metastatic agent.

30 Mar 2010

New Prestige Antibodies powered by Atlas Antibodies added to Sigma Life Science's portfolio

Sigma® Life Science, the innovative biological products and services brand of Sigma-Aldrich®, today announced that it has added 2,200 new Prestige Antibodies® powered by Atlas Antibodies to its industry-leading portfolio.

From Atlas Antibodies 29 Mar 2010

USPTO allows Regulus Therapeutics' claims covering methods of antagonizing miR-181a for regulating immune response

Regulus Therapeutics Inc. announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has allowed claims in U.S. Application Serial No. 11/977,506 covering methods of antagonizing miR-181a to regulate immune response. This patent is owned by Stanford University and licensed exclusively to Regulus. miR-181a has been shown to regulate the response of immune cells, such as T lymphocytes, to specific stimuli and modulation of miR-181a could lead to a novel treatment of inflammatory disease.

18 Mar 2010