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Applied Biosystems (NYSE:ABI), an Applera Corporation business, today announced the availability of a new line of synthetic short interfering ribonucleic acids (siRNA). Silencer® Select siRNAs expand the company’s portfolio of siRNA products and when compared to other leading commercial siRNAs, deliver the most consistent gene silencing and highest quality gene function data available to biomedical researchers performing ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi) experiments1. RNAi is a naturally occurring biological mechanism within cells that selectively silences and regulates specific genes. Utilizing siRNAs to induce RNAi is widely used as a research tool to silence – or turn-off – the expression of individual genes to study their function in various biological pathways. Another area of application being studied is the use of RNAi as a therapeutic agent. Since many diseases are caused by the abnormal activity of genes, the ability to selectively silence them using siRNAs has the potential to provide a new way to treat a wide range of illnesses including cancer, age-related macular degeneration and Alzheimer’s. Silencer Select siRNAs help biomedical researchers by providing a set of pre-designed siRNAs that have been developed using a new proprietary siRNA design algorithm to more reliably silence specific genes and chemical modifications to enhance the specificity of the silencing effect. This combination of enhanced design and chemical modification results in more consistent gene silencing at lower siRNA concentrations and with fewer off-target effects. Off-target effects are results that inadvertently affect expression of unintended genes. The siRNA design process is a critical step in successful gene silencing. Utilizing computer algorithms to design siRNAs has been shown to produce more reliable siRNAs than the time intensive process of manually selecting siRNAs for target gene sequences. Applied Biosystems’ proprietary siRNA design algorithm was developed by Applied Biosystems’ Ambion business by analyzing performance data from thousands of siRNA experiments to better understand the link between a siRNA’s sequence, target location, and thermodynamic properties and its silencing efficiency. This new siRNA design process yields effective siRNAs and ensures that target silencing is consistently achieved, as measured by TaqMan® Gene Expression Assays. To validate the performance of the Silencer Select siRNAs, Applied Biosystems tested hundreds of Silencer Select siRNAs for silencing efficiency using cell-based assays. As part of this study, Applied Biosystems compared the performance of 94 different siRNAs from three of the industry’s leading vendors targeting seven different, well characterized genes. The results showed that pre-designed Silencer Select siRNAs effectively elicited the expected, silenced phenotypes 92 percent of the time whereas the siRNAs from other vendors elicited the expected result in only 57-72 percent of the siRNAs tested. This improved efficacy is expected to give researchers greater confidence in the Silencer Select siRNAs and generate more reliable data that can be used to understand gene function. “RNAi research technologies are greatly accelerating the functional characterization of disease-relevant genes, thereby providing a critical drug discovery and development tool for a growing number of biomedical and pharmaceutical laboratories,” said Peter Dansky, president for Applied Biosystems’ molecular and cell biology consumables division. “The Silencer Select siRNAs and our complete line of products for the RNAi workflow provide best-in-class solutions that are enabling researchers to advance the performance of gene silencing experiments and generate high-quality gene function and target validation data.” Applied Biosystems is a global leader in the development and commercialization of instrument-based systems, consumables, software, and services for the life-science market and offers one of the industry’s most comprehensive lines of products for handling, preserving, isolating, detecting, and measuring RNA. Applied Biosystems’ complete line of real-time PCR products complements the new Silencer Select siRNAs in the RNAi workflow. Silencer Select siRNAs extend Applied Biosystems’ existing line of Silencer siRNAs which provide several highly effective siRNAs for each human, mouse, and rat gene (more than 200,000 siRNAs); siRNA libraries, including genome-wide siRNA libraries; and custom siRNA libraries. These products are complemented by the company’s line of TaqMan-based assays for quantitative, real-time PCR gene expression studies. Assays are available for the human, mouse, and rat genomes. For more information about Applied Biosystems’ complete line of products for RNAi research please visit www.appliedbiosystems.com. For more information about Silencer Select siRNAs please visit www.appliedbiosystems.com/select. Silencer Select siRNAs are for research use only and not for use in diagnostic procedures. About Applera Corporation and Applied Biosystems Applera Corporation consists of two operating groups. Applied Biosystems serves the life science industry and research community by developing and marketing instrument-based systems, consumables, software, and services. Customers use these tools to analyze nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), small molecules, and proteins to make scientific discoveries and develop new pharmaceuticals. Applied Biosystems’ products also serve the needs of some markets outside of life science research, which we refer to as “applied markets,” such as the fields of: human identity testing (forensic and paternity testing); biosecurity, which refers to products needed in response to the threat of biological terrorism and other malicious, accidental, and natural biological dangers; and quality and safety testing, such as testing required for food and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Applied Biosystems is headquartered in Foster City, CA, and reported sales of approximately $2.1 billion during fiscal 2007. Celera is a diagnostics business delivering personalized disease management solutions through a combination of tests and services based on proprietary genetics discovery platforms. The business is developing diagnostic products that predict disease risk and optimize therapy selection and patient outcomes, based on the discovery and validation of novel markers in complex diseases such as cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and liver and autoimmune diseases
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