Therapeutics based on the controlled use of ribonucleic acid (RNA) was seldom heard beyond the confines of the world’s leading laboratories only a decade ago. However, it has been thrown into the spotlight owing to mRNA -based vaccines against the CoV-Sars-2 virus in the COVID-19 pandemic from the start of 2020. Understanding and applying RNA-based technology is core to a believe that this will help the world get back up on its feet again.
Xiaomo Biotech Limited is a biotech engineering company co-founded in 2018 by Professor Huang Linfeng with other CityU scholars at CityU’s Department of Biomedical Sciences, where he was focusing on developing cutting-edge RNA interference (RNAi) technology. Along with Dr Guneet Kaur, Dr Ren Yutian and Mr Cheung Hung Chi, at the Department of Biomedical Science, Huang further optimised the RNAi technology, while obtaining important patents for some of their self-developed technologies.
With over 15 years of research experience on RNAi technology, Huang has been at the forefront of the subject’s research. Before joining CityU in 2014 at the Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in the USA, he started to look at the possible use of prokaryotic small interfering RNAs (pro-siRNAs) in the activity of genes.
“We can make very precise use of siRNA to switch off a part of the ‘unwanted’ genes. Over the years, we have experimented the use of the pro-siRNAs in dealing with various diseases,” explains Huang, who adds that the technology forms the base of drug development in the fight against numerous diseases, especially cancers.
The team has also looked into the technology’s use in studying communicable diseases, in the cases of bacterial infection and the Zika virus.
Not in any way a recent discovery, RNAs can be chemically synthesised. However, the production cost of synthetic RNAs could be high, while the production process is somehow ecologically compromised. The stability of synthetic RNAs also leaves much to be desired.
Since his time at CityU, Huang has been tirelessly pursuing the process to mass produce siRNAs cost-effectively to make the technology more accessible to the scientific and biomedical communities to have a better way of understanding and controlling diseases.
Through Xiaomo Biotech, a production process, built on years of dedicated research is realized. The needed and functional RNAs is not only synthesized in a manner that is cost-effective, environmentally sound, but also avoid the technicality associated with sophisticated laboratories around the world.
“The technical requirement of the production site is relatively low, making the production method highly scalable and cost-effective at least 10 times cheaper,” says Huang, who expects the method to be completed within one or two years.
The leading scientist makes the company’s siRNAs production method sound without much effort. “We utilise micro-organisms as a kind of ‘nest’ to help to breed functional siRNAs in a process like brewing beer.” The agent the team uses, E. coli, is also one of the most studied microbes in the world.
Xiaomo Biotech’s proprietary technology producing functional siRNAs to suit the widespread needs of the RNA interference technology across industries is readily deployed by some of the leading Chinese biotech companies to develop next-generation drugs contributing to the advancement of humankind.