Alnylam establishes MIT research program

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. said today it is establishing a new research program on the delivery of RNAi therapeutics at the MIT Center for Cancer Research.

Alnylam is a Cambridge biopharmaceutical company seeking to develop novel technologies based on RNA interference, or RNAi, a naturally occurring mechanism within cells for selectively silencing and regulating specific genes.

Since, as Alnylam notes, many diseases are caused by the inappropriate activity of specific cells, the ability to silence genes selectively through RNAi has great potential.

The agreement with the research center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology provides Alnylam with an exclusive option to license future RNAi technology resulting from the research sponsorship, Alnylam said.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)