HYDERABAD: The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) is planning to set up an exclusive facility entirely based on RNAi or gene-silencing technique.

The facility, to be known as `Centre for Advanced Technology and Drug Development', will focus on the use of gene-silencing technique for development of novel drugs for humans, animals and plants.

The move to set up such a facility comes in the wake of tremendous potential in the gene-silencing technique for developing drugs to fight viruses and diseases like HIV, cancer, diabetes, arthritis and several others in plants.

Viral-resistant strains

Scientists from the research institute have already developed viral-resistant silk and groundnut varieties using this technique. Initial research in the last two years at CCMB has also produced encouraging results in developing a novel cancer therapy and a therapy for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

"RNAi has become a readymade source for blocking the activity of any disease-causing gene in a particular part of either humans or plants. So we need a facility to harness this technology into drugs," says CCMB scientist Utpal Bhadra. CCMB has already sent a proposal of Rs. 189 crores to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for the gene-silencing project and proposed centre.

Dedicated facility

"To speed up RNAi-based therapy in various fields, we need a dedicated facility. In fact, we are moving very fast towards development of a complete cancer therapy using this technique," says the report of CCMB scientists that was sent to CSIR Director-General R.A. Mashelkar recently.

"We have spoken to Mashelkar about the proposal to set up a centre for RNAi research. We can at best hope that the proposal is accepted without any hitches," CCMB Director Lalji Singh told The Hindu .

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail