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| Heidelberg,
Tuesday 12 July 2005 |
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| Hunt for human genes involved in cell division under way |
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| siRNAs are printed as a microarray into a live cell imaging chamber. |
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Press
Release 12 July 2005 [PDF]
EMBL starts screening genome-wide siRNA library in EU project MitoCheck
A systematic search through human genes has begun
at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory [EMBL]
in Heidelberg, Germany. Working within the MitoCheck
consortium that includes 10 other institutes throughout
Europe, the EMBL scientists will silence all human
genes, one-by-one, to find those involved in cell
division [mitosis] and to answer fundamental questions
of how cell division is regulated.
The scientists will use a method called 'RNA interference
[RNAi]' where chemically synthesized RNA molecules
are used to target and silence each human gene.
About 22,000 genes will be suppressed and their
impact on cell division monitored by live cell microscopy
to understand each gene's role in cell division.
"To our knowledge, we are the first group to take
on this systematic search through the genome in
live cells. We will use the most potent RNAi reagent
for this study, which is usually out of reach for
academic labs because of the enormous cost and the
ever-changing annotation of the human genome. But
being part of the large EU project MitoCheck allowed
us to work with one of the leading suppliers of
siRNAs, Ambion Europe, Ltd., to produce a genome-wide
library for this project," says Dr. Jan Ellenberg,
EMBL Group Leader and co-initiator of the MitoCheck
project.
Undertaking such a large project required
tens of thousands of siRNA molecules, as two to
three molecules are targeted specifically against
each human gene. EMBL chose Ambion as a supplier
of the siRNA library because its library could be
tailored to the most up-to-date list of human target
genes – a list provided by the Wellcome Trust Sanger
Institute, the MitoCheck bioinformatics partner.
Also, Ambion's siRNA libraries utilize a siRNA design
algorithm developed by Cenix BioScience GmbH [an
EMBL spin-off company], leading to high efficacy
of the siRNAs.
"We are happy to work with Ambion
and Cenix BioScience on this ambitious project.
This represents the first use of a genome-wide library
of chemically synthesized siRNAs in academic research
and these partners have provided us with the tools
to carry out this search," says Ellenberg. "Thousands
of genes have been tested in the initial phase of
the project and the results are very promising."
The systematic search and analysis of the screen
is set to be completed by the end of 2005. siRNAs
are printed as a microarray into a live cell imaging
chamber.
Press contact
Trista Dawson
EMBL Press Officer, European Molecular Biology Laboratory,
Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
Tel: +49 [0] 6221 3878452
E-mail: trista.dawson@embl.de |
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