Bio-Rad Laboratories and Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT), have announced a collaborative agreement to develop RNA interference (RNAi) tool sets for life science researchers
Under the agreement, IDT's siRNA design and synthesis expertise will be paired with Bio-Rad's transfection and analytical competencies to deliver validated Dicer-Substrate 27-mer small interfering RNA (siRNA) duplexes for RNAi applications.
Bio-Rad will experimentally validate IDT's potent Dicer-Substrate siRNA duplexes in live cells.
This real-world validation, in addition to IDT's existing functional guarantees, will give researchers added confidence in their work and help them deliver results sooner.
"For biotech researchers this is an ideal pairing," said IDT president and CEO Joe Walder.
"With IDT's Dicer-Substrate design delivering up to a 100-fold increased potency over 21-mer siRNA and Bio-Rad's validation ensuring efficacy in a live cell environment, researchers are free to get their experiments up and running in record time".
"Bio-Rad is always looking for new ways to help our customers succeed," said Bio-Rad vice president and group manager life science Brad Crutchfield.
"This collaboration will lead to products that will reduce uncertainty and allow researchers to spend more time focusing on their results".
Through the agreement, Bio-Rad is granted the exclusive right to sell IDT manufactured Dicer-Substrate siRNAs that it tests and validates.
In addition, Bio-Rad and IDT plan to develop a series of control kits for use with IDT's Trifecta Dicer-Substrate RNAi kits and Bio-Rad's validated siRNA duplexes.
RNAi is a major advance in genomic research that allows researchers to target specific genes and down-regulate their expression in living cells.
The first generation of RNAi technology included the use of short-interfering RNA (siRNA) designed to bypass an intracellular process controlled by the Dicer enzyme.
Later, it was discovered that optimising RNA duplexes to act as substrates for processing by Dicer could achieve improved levels of RNAi-mediated gene knockdown at significantly lower concentrations than first-generation siRNA designs.
