South African Research Organisation Joins RNAi Global Initiative

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc announced that the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa has become the newest member of the RNAi Global initiative – an alliance of Thermo Fisher and leading international research centres. The CSIR, based in Pretoria, has several research domains and regional offices throughout South Africa. It is the first organisation in Africa to conduct whole-genome RNA-interference (RNAi) screening with small-interfering RNA (siRNA). Like all members of the RNAi Global Initiative, the CSIR is using Thermo Scientific Dharmacon siRNA collections in this work, specifically the siGENOME® SMARTpool® Mouse Whole Genome siRNA Library and the ON-TARGETplus® SMARTpool Human Whole Genome siRNA Library. These collections include reagents designed for each gene in the genome, enabling scientists to systematically block (silence) the effect of target genes and determine their role in disease or find potential therapeutic benefits of silencing them.

Dr Musa Mhlanga, principal investigator of the laboratory for gene expression and biophysics and research leader of the CSIR’s Synthetic Biology programme, will use the Dharmacon siRNA libraries to address broad areas of research, including the mapping of gene networks and the investigation of host-pathogen interactions for the major disease burdens in Africa, notably HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and, increasingly, cancer. The discovery and mapping of gene networks is an emerging research field, going beyond the identification of individual genes implicated in a disease to understanding the interplay of entire groups of genes that may be key nodes in these networks. This has major implications for many areas of biomedical research. Dr Mhlanga said: “We plan to use combinatorial approaches, knocking down multiple genes in a single cell. Our goal is to identify the groups of genes working together in different biological contexts, from growth and development to infectious and chronic diseases. We want to understand the key networks in these processes and how, for example, pathogens control and ‘engineer’ gene expression in their human hosts.”