System Biosciences (SBI) Launches Genome-Wide Human and Mouse siRNA Libraries

System Biosciences (SBI) has announced that is offering the first small-interfering RNA (siRNA) libraries that target the entire human and mouse genomes. Each GeneNet™ siRNA Library contains more than a hundred thousand siRNA templates that target 47,400 human or 39,000 mouse transcripts. These libraries enable researchers to screen these organisms' complete genomes, and identify genes whose function is regulating, controlling, or otherwise affecting specific biological processes, such as signaling cascades, apoptosis, cell proliferation, and differentiation. Genes discovered with this approach are candidates for novel drug targets or diagnostic biomarkers. "We believe that the cost-effective, ready-to-use siRNA library format and its compatibility with Affymetrix GeneChip® Arrays for data analysis make the GeneNet Libraries a very practical and useful tool in a wide range of research areas for our partners," says Alex Chenchik, Vice President of R&D at SBI. Concurrent with the launch, the GeneNet Libraries will be provided to a consortium of Japanese researchers organized by B-Bridge International, a collaborator of SBI. "The collaboration with the B-Bridge consortium will allow us to fast-track market adoption of our genome-wide libraries." stated Enal Razvi, Head of Business Development at SBI. According to Taka Mizutani, Director of Business Development for B-Bridge, "The SBI libraries will provides our network of researchers with unparalleled ability to analyze function and identify the sets of genes involved in various responses of interest. These libraries enable experiments that are just not possible with a simpler gene-by-gene knockdown approach."