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Functional genomics - Articles and news items
Issue 3 2006, Past issues / 23 May 2006 / Ina Poser, Project Leader and Frank Buchholz Group Leader, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology
Large DNA-sequencing projects such as the Human Genome Project have provided the scientific community with a new challenge: to try to understand the information encoded in the primary sequence of the genome. Studies investigating the role and function of the components of the genome are often called functional genomics.
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Issue 2 2006, Past issues / 24 March 2006 / Steven A. Haney, Department of Biological Technologies, Wyeth Research
Large and small drug development companies have used RNAi intensively for several years now1-3. The adoption of RNAi technologies by drug companies followed fairly closely with their adoption by academic research labs, and as such many of the challenges and problems that were a natural consequence of the rapid expansion of RNAi needed to be worked out by the industrial sector along with academia.
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Issue 1 2006, Past issues / 2 February 2006 / Quan Du, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University, Meihong Chen, Chinese Human Genome Center Beijing, Claes Wahlestedt, Scripps Florida and Zicai Liang, Karolinska Institute
Although synthetic siRNA libraries are becoming more available, most high throughput siRNA library-based screening was carried out with siRNA libraries encoded by different vectors. In this article, siRNA library construction methods and HTS applications are summarised.
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Issue 4 2005, Past issues / 11 November 2005 / Oliver C. Steinbach, Head of Department, Technology Management, ALTANA Pharma AG
RNAi technology provides the ‘loss of function’ approach, which has been widely used in the last couple of years for analysis of gene function, and in drug discovery for identification and validation of potential drug target candidates. This technology is now widely applied for functional screens in order to identify disease associated signals and targets whose specific inhibition could potentially result in a curative effect for treatment of complex human diseases. The focus of such screens is evolving more towards druggable gene families rather than genome wide approaches – the latter being expensive, complex and sometimes confusing.
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Issue 3 2005, Past issues / 22 August 2005 / Craig S. Mickanin, Research Investigator and Mark A. Labow, Executive Director, Genomic and Proteomic Sciences, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research
Perhaps the most significant technological advancement in the study of gene function in the post-genome era has been the discovery that RNA interference (RNAi) can be exploited for depletion of endogenous mRNA in mammalian cells. As the pharmaceutical industry has fallen under intense pressure to both identify and validate high-quality drug targets, the lure of bona fide genome-wide functional analysis and target identification using small interfering RNA (siRNA) has fueled the interest in what can now be truly called ‘functional’ genomics.
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Issue 2 2005, Past issues / 20 May 2005 / Jeroen DeGroot, PhD; Anne-Marie Zuurmond, PhD, Daniel Eefting, MD; Ruud A Bank, PhD; and Paul Quax, PhD.; TNO Quality of Life, Business Unit Biomedical Research
All diseases have a genetic component, whether inherited or resulting from the body’s response to environmental stresses such as viruses, toxins or trauma. The successes of the human genome project have enabled researchers to pinpoint errors in genes that cause or contribute to disease.
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Issue 1 2005, Past issues / 7 March 2005 / Olaf Heidenreich, Department of Molecular Biology, Interfaculty Institute for Cell Biology, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen
Small interfering RNAs are irreplaceable tools for the functional analysis of pathological gene products. Therapeutic siRNA development leads to new treatment strategies for gene products, where conventional small molecule approaches have failed.
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