The Chinese Solar Machine Layer by Layer Fire in the Library The Mystery Behind Anesthesia
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is poised to commercialize drugs made from RNA molecules.
It is being hailed as one of the biggest advances in biology in decades, one that could eventually lead to drugs for a wide range of diseases, from cancer to diabetes to AIDS. And one startup, Cambridge, MA-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, is in a particularly strong position to transform it into new pharmaceuticals.
In 1998, scientists discovered that RNA interference (RNAi)-a natural process in which small, double-stranded RNA molecules shut down the activity of particular genes-takes place in animals. For biomedical researchers, the implications were obvious; if you could selectively block genes involved in a disease, you could, in theory at least, stop it. Founded in 2002 by some of the pioneers of RNA interference research, Alnylam aims to synthesize small RNA molecules that could become the basis for a broad class of new drugs. So far, Alnylam has focused on cancer and metabolic diseases like diabetes. Its ambitious goal is to have a drug candidate in human testing by the end of 2005.To read the entire article you must log in:
Most of our content — all daily news, blogs, and videos — is free. Magazine stories are paid. To read this story, you must have a subscription or you must use a reading credit. Registration to Technology Review is free and entitles registrants to three free reading credits.
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.