LISBON, Portugal & DRESDEN, Germany & CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cenix BioScience GmbH, a leading specialist in advanced RNA interference (RNAi)-based research services, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), a leading RNAi therapeutics company, and the Lisbon-based biomedical research centre Instituto de Medicina Molecular (IMM), today announced the publication of their collaborative study in Cell Host & Microbe, describing the discovery and in vivo validation of scavenger receptor BI (SR-BI), a major regulator of cholesterol uptake by the liver, as a critical host factor for malaria infection. The new research findings are the first to describe a molecular link between cholesterol metabolism and malaria infection, and the new data could lead to new approaches for the treatment of malaria including use of RNAi therapeutics.