SEOUL, South Korea, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ — BioMolecular
Therapeutics, Inc. (BMT, Inc.), a new Seoul-based RNAi therapeutics
company with a proprietary technology designed to reduce
significantly deleterious side effects triggered by conventional
siRNA, announced that it has launched its global operations. The
company is currently developing a novel RNAi therapeutic for
age-related macular degeneration (AMD), based on its asymmetric
shorter-duplex siRNA (asiRNA) technology, originally published in
Molecular Therapy in 2009 as a featured article. Early
studies suggest that the asiRNA technology will allow the
application of RNAi therapeutics in fields where innate immune
stimulation needs to be avoided, such as AMD. The goal of an RNAi
therapeutic is to target specifically only the gene or genes
implicated in the disease. In AMD, activation of the innate immune
response could elicit off-target effects, potentially hastening the
progression of the disease. Two previous clinical trials using
traditional siRNA as an AMD therapeutic were terminated at Phase II
and III because of unintended activation of the patients’ immune
response.
BMT’s leadership team includes Dong-ki Lee, Ph.D., the inventor
of the company’s proprietary technology, and Sun woo Hong, Ph.D.,
BMT’s founding CEO. Dr. Dong-ki Lee is associate professor of
chemistry at Sungkyunkwan University in Suwon, Korea, and the
recipient of the prestigious Global Research Laboratory grant from
the Korean government for the development of novel RNAi
therapeutics. Dr. Sun Woo Hong has strong expertise in siRNA and
genomics research, and was research professor at Dongguk University
in Seoul, Korea. The company has also named two key advisors,
Jayakrishna Ambati, M.D., ophthalmologist and professor at
University of Kentucky Medical School, and Johannes Fruehauf, M.D.,
Ph.D., an experienced biotechnology executive and a specialist in
RNAi therapeutics.
Dr. Ambati will serve as head of BMT’s
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