Health

14 HEALTH • Spring 2018 After Nasdaq woes, RXi pivots to promising immuno-oncology field \\ By Livia Gershon I n 1998, Craig C. Mello, a biologist at University of Massachusetts Medical School, and his colleague, Andrew Z. Fire, discovered a natural process known as RNA interference (or RNAi) that can be harnessed to make tiny, targeted changes in the way our genes transform our bodies. After winning the Nobel Prize for the discovery in 2006, Mello went on to cofound RXi Pharmaceuticals, where he now serves as chair of the Scientific Advisory Board. A NEW FRONTIER Melissa Maxwell works in a laboratory at RXi Pharmaceuticals in Marlborough. The company recently refocused its efforts on the cancer treatment field. In the two decades since the discovery, RXi has explored a variety of applications for RNAi, which can selectively prevent certain genetic information from being expressed in the body. Now, it's bringing the results of Mello's work into a burgeoning field of cancer research. "We can, in essence, reprogram very elegantly a patient's own cells, or we can program engineered cells so that they are better armed—weaponized if you want—to attack cancer tissues more than the base-level immune system," said Gerrit Dispersyn, chief development officer at RXi. A miracle treatment? This type of process is part of immuno-oncology, a family of treatments that has brought new hope to people facing many types of cancer in recent years. In January, RXi announced that it was shifting its energy toward its work in oncology, and away from treatments for skin and eye diseases, where it had previously focused much of its energy. The idea of using the immune system to treat can- cers goes back more than a century, but it's made some huge leaps over the past decade. John Hallinan, chief business officer at the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, said some immune system- based treatments have amazed doctors working in cancer treatment. "The recovery is astounding, and some [patients] are relatively cancer-free after a regimen," he said. "It doesn't work for everybody, but it's very promis- ing. Certain types of cancer where there's nothing else, it has proved to be nothing less than a godsend and a miracle." Within the Massachusetts life sciences world, Hallinan said, immuno-oncology is now one of the top four most frequently researched areas. Breakthroughs in the field didn't come out of nowhere, Hallinan said. As with many scientific advances, it depended on decades of painstaking research. But the payoff became clear over the past few years. Immuno-oncology brings promise, post Nasdaq woes For RXi, Dispersyn said, a clear signal about the practical viability of immuno-oncology research P H O T O S / E D D C O T E

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