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Cenix BioScience Publishes Comprehensive Genome-Wide RNAi
Screen
of C. elegans Cell Division Genes and Releases Full Dataset Online
Dresden, Germany, March 24, 2005 - Cenix BioScience GmbH
(Dresden), the leading specialist in advanced RNA interference (RNAi)-based
research services, announced the publication of its genome-wide RNAi screen for
cell division genes in C. elegans as a full article in today’s issue of Nature
magazine.
The study, also reviewed by a News & Views feature in the same issue, represents
the culmination of a major research effort originally initiated as an academic
pilot project in 1998 by Drs Christophe Echeverri and Pierre Gönczy in the
laboratory of Prof. Anthony Hyman, then at the European Molecular Biology
Laboratory (Heidelberg, Germany). The groundbreaking work, which was also
supported in part by funding from the Max Planck Society, the German Human
Genome Project (DHGP) and the German National Genome Research Network (NGFN),
also involved crucial contributions from collaborators in other institutions,
including Dr. Alan Coulson (then at the Hinxton, UK-based Wellcome Trust Sanger
Institute) and Dr. Steven Jones (from the BC Cancer Agency’s Genome Sciences
Centre, Vancouver, Canada). Following the academic pilot, which focused on one
of the six chromosomes of C. elegans, the completion of the screen over
virtually all ~19,500 genes of the worm genome became the founding project of
Cenix BioScience as it started operations in 2000.
Led by Dr. Birte Sönnichsen, COO of Cenix and first author on the Nature
publication, and Dr. Echeverri, now CEO/CSO of Cenix, the project yielded new
functional insights on over 660 genes, and allowed the identification of several
novel human therapeutic targets for the treatment of cancer and other
proliferative diseases. The screen has also formed the company’s main launching
pad towards its present focus of carrying out advanced high throughput, high
content applications of RNAi in human and rodent cells to accelerate the
development of new therapeutic treatments for a variety of human diseases.
Keeping its founders’ original promise to the academic research community, Cenix
has enabled free online access to the entire dataset by providing web
dissemination rights to one of its parent institutes, the Dresden-based Max
Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (www.mpi-cbg.de). The
full depth of screening data from this landmark study, including approx. 40,000
time lapse recordings, still micrographs and text annotations from over 300,000
microinjection experiments, will thereby become freely accessible and searchable
online (www.worm.mpi-cbg.de/phenobank2)
starting today. The dataset has also been made available for cross-referencing
through other public online C. elegans databases, including Wormbase.
About Cenix BioScience GmbH
Cenix BioScience GmbH is a pioneer and leader in high throughput (HT),
genome-driven applications of RNA interference (RNAi) for the discovery and
validation of new therapeutic drug targets. Founded in 1999 as the first
biotechnology company specializing exclusively in HT-RNAi, Cenix has accumulated
unparalleled depth and breadth of experience in this field, combining high
content phenotypic analyses with proprietary genome-wide RNAi libraries for use
in key experimental systems, including a wide range of human and rodent cells.
Cenix is now making its unique expertise accessible to industry and academic
researchers through highly customizable research services. Please contact Cenix
or visit the company’s web site
www.cenix-bioscience.com for more information.
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