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Print Edition StoriesMonday, November 30, 2009
RXi, UMass Medical School researchers land ALS study funds
By Mass High Tech staff
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RNAi-focused biopharmaceutical firm RXi Pharmaceuticals Corp. and Robert Brown, chair of the department of neurology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, received funding from The Angel Fund, The ALS Therapy Alliance and Project ALS to study the Worcester-based firm’s rxRNA compound to treat ALS.
Brown is expected to study the role of gene silencing in treating ALS in mice where a human mutated version of the SOD1 gene is over-expressed. RXi (Nasdaq: RXII) will provide its RNAi technology, specifically for the use of its self-delivery capability, to the researchers.
UMass Medical School has its hand in RNA research with the development of the RNA Therapeutics Institute, its new laboratory co-directed by Craig Mello, a founder of RXi and co-recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
The amount of funding RXi and Brown received was not disclosed.
The Angel Fund is an organization, formed in 1997, to support ALS treatment research at the UMass Medical School. The ALS Therapy Alliance, also focused on ALS, brings together scientists and clinicians for the sake of research. And Project ALS, founded in 1998, is a fundraising program that directs 81 percent of its funds to research programs.
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