Analysis of documents pertaining to the phenomena of RNA interference

CINF 28

Brian Sweet, bsweet@cas.org, Product Marketing, CAS, Olentangy River Rd., Columbus, OH 43210
RNA interference (RNAi) prevents genes from being transcribed into proteins. The therapeutic potential of RNA interference for infectious diseases, cancer and a variety of illnesses is being actively explored by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies throughout the world. The promise of this technology was recently recognized when the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to the discoverers of RNA interference, Andrew Fire and Craig Mello, only eight years after they made their discovery based on research involving the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans. Based on the body of literature citing these authors' seminal paper on RNAi, and using analysis and visualization technology, we'll review the institutional leaders in exploiting their discovery, the leading researchers in this area, and show how this technology is being applied to pharmacology and medicine.