The genes of dreams

Nobel Prize recipient Craig Mello speaks at a news conference in Boston in 2006. The biologist has worked with Chinese scientists for years.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Nobel-winning biologist Craig Mello tells Liu Xiangrui that the stage is set for China to play a leading role in world science.

Craig Mello, an American biologist and co-winner of the Nobel Prize in 2006, says the great thing about science is that it can break barriers and bring people of different cultural backgrounds together.

In his younger days, Mello, now 56, used to interact with many Chinese students and fellow scientists, who then visited the United States for studies or to attend seminars. One such meeting led to his friendship with Zhang Biliang, an entrepreneur who returned to China and founded the Guangzhou-based biotech company RiboBio in 2006.

Mello and Zhang have worked together since.

"Friendship really is the key (to our cooperation), and we've been collaborating closely," Mello tells China Daily during a recent visit to the southern city of Guangzhou in Guangdong province.

The professor of molecular medicine at University of Massachusetts Medical School and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences shares his Nobel Prize with Andrew Fire for their discovery of RNA interference, a genetic process.

It is an example of the RNA-guided searching mechanism that cells develop to find and regulate genetic information, quite analogous to the way we would search the Internet, Mello explains.

RNA interference allows researchers to rapidly "knock out" the expression of specific genes and define the biological functions of those genes. It also provides a potential avenue to "silence" genes that cause or contribute to diseases.

"It has huge ramifications and implications both for medicine and other fields. So it's an extremely exciting time now in genetics," Mello says.

RiboBio has been among China's early companies to develop medicines based on RNA interference.

Led by Mello, who is a scientific consultant and chairman of its scientific and strategic development commission, RiboBio has formed an international research team on RNA-based therapies.

In 2011, the company's focus on RNA silencing and relevant therapies was recognized as an innovative project by the provincial government.

Currently the company is developing RNA treatments for diseases, including liver cancer, based on such technologies. A RiboBio treatment for osteoarthritis that uses RNA technology is expected to go into clinical trials this year.

The company has created the Canton Nucleic Acids Forum, a series of recurring conferences with the initial goal of exposing Chinese scientists to the latest developments in research on nucleic acids worldwide and translating the new knowledge into practical applications everywhere.

During his brief visits to China, Mello holds discussions with the Chinese employees of RiboBio.