Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced it has formed an exclusive research agreement with the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, to investigate and characterize the molecular mechanisms underlying intracellular transport of small interfering RNA, (siRNA), the molecules that mediate RNAi.

Alnylam scientists will work closely with the laboratory of Marino Zerial, Ph D, whose team is internationally recognized as being at the forefront of the intracellular trafficking field and have the needed expertise and capabilities to investigate cellular uptake pathways in a robust and high-throughput manner. Alnylam will have an option on any intellectual property that results from this agreement.

"Alnylam has a long-standing commitment to scientific excellence in the field of RNAi therapeutics and our new collaboration with Professor Zerial and his team is representative of the collaborations we have and will continue to form as we seek to increase our understanding of the underlying mechanism of cellular delivery of RNAi therapeutics," said Victor Kotelianski, MD, Ph D, vice president for Research at Alnylam. "This agreement complements our existing delivery collaborations and will provide deep insights into the cellular uptake of siRNAs and the pathways by which they function. We believe the findings from this effort will allow us to further optimize and expand our broad range of delivery approaches for RNAi therapeutics."

"I am very excited to be working with Alnylam, a leader in the field of RNAi therapeutics, to advance our understanding of how siRNAs are taken up into the cell cytoplasm, where they act to silence disease-causing genes," said Marino Zerial, Ph D, research group leader and director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics. "Through this collaboration, we will increase our understanding of how different siRNA formulations are internalized within cells and then use this knowledge to further optimize approaches for delivery of RNAi therapeutics."

RNAi (RNA interference) is a revolution in biology, representing a breakthrough in understanding how genes are turned on and off in cells, and a completely new approach to drug discovery and development.

Alnylam is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics based on RNA interference, or RNAi. The company is applying its therapeutic expertise in RNAi to address significant medical needs, many of which cannot effectively be addressed with small molecules or antibodies, the current major classes of drugs.