I wanted to share with you the following article published in the Albany Times Union: HocusLocus, SUNY Poly receive $225,000

By Claire Hughes Published 8:05 pm, Friday, June 12, 2015

Chief research scientist James Keith prepares RNA samples for analysis in a lab at SUNY Polytechnic Institute's Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (SUNY Poly CNSE) on Friday, June 12, 2015 in Albany, N.Y. SUNY Poly CNSE startup HocusLocus, LLC, in partnership with the SUNY Poly CNSE NanoCollege, has been awarded $225,000 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research leading to an antiviral approach using an RNA-based platform technology, referred to as OsxRNA.O(Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Albany

A partnership between the Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering and startup firm HocusLocus has been awarded $225,000 from the National Institutes of Health for research aimed at controlling a "switch" in a gene that could result in the elimination of infected cells or the creation of desired ones.

If proven to work consistently and safely, the new platform technology — so-called because there are multiple ways it could be built upon — is called sxRNA. HocusLocus' business is making molecular tools based on RNA.

Most people are familiar with DNA, sometimes referred to as a person's genetic blueprint. RNA comes in different forms.

Some RNA molecules are copies of the DNA that send its genetic message to the cell. Other RNA molecules turn genes on and off, or dim their display, like a light switch. These RNA molecules produce various proteins to get their jobs done.

Scott Tenenbaum , associate professor of nanobioscience at CNSE and scientific advisor to HocusLocus, provided a kitchen analogy to explain the distinction between DNA and RNA: The DNA contains the ingredients — some 25,000 of them in the human body. The RNA are like chefs putting together a recipe; they control where and when to add ingredients, and how much to use. Scientists working at CNSE and other laboratories are engaged in trying to decode the recipe.

HocusLocus' sxRNA was developed based on a naturally occurring process observed in the cell, Tenenbaum said. Scientists then worked to engineer the same process that would turn protein production on or off.

HocusLocus can predict how the single-stranded molecule chain RNA will fold on itself in the presence or absence of sxRNA, a shortened form of "structurally interacting RNA," Tenenbaum said. In healthy cells, sxRNA creates no effect, he said. In a cell infected with a virus, the sxRNA prompts a structural change in the RNA that causes the release of a "killer gene" that attacks the cell.

"We're not killing the infection, we're killing the virally infected cells, which in the process gets rid of the virus," Tenenbaum said.

In an application like stem cell research, sxRNA might prompt cells to differentiate into the type of tissue desired, he said.

The NIH funding is in the form of a Phase I grant, meant to help move technology out of the research setting into the marketplace.

chughes@timesunion.com • 518-454-5417 • @hughesclaire

From left, chief research scientist James Keith, research scientist from SUNY Poly CNSE Zach Wurz, graduate student at SUNY Poly Caroline Horizny and assistant professor of nanobioscience Scott Tenenbaum work in a lab at SUNY Polytechnic InstituteOs Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (SUNY Poly CNSE) on Friday, June 12, 2015 in Albany, N.Y. SUNY Poly CNSE startup HocusLocus, LLC, in partnership with the SUNY Poly CNSE NanoCollege, has been awarded $225,000 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research leading to an antiviral approach using an RNA-based platform technology, referred to as OsxRNA.O(Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Assistant professor of nanobioscience Scott Tenenbaum displays a computer screen in a lab at SUNY Polytechnic InstituteOs Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (SUNY Poly CNSE) on Friday, June 12, 2015 in Albany, N.Y. Shown on the screen is the sxRNA switch in the "off" state on top and the "on" state in the presence of a viral RNA on the bottom. SUNY Poly CNSE startup HocusLocus, LLC, in partnership with the SUNY Poly CNSE NanoCollege, has been awarded $225,000 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research leading to an antiviral approach using an RNA-based platform technology, referred to as OsxRNA.O(Lori Van Buren / Times Union)