Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 20, 2026

MISSION esiRNA for RNAi Screening in Mammalian Cells
Published on: May 12, 2010
On the art of identifying effective and specific siRNAs
1Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Laboratory of RNA Molecular Biology, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, Box 186, New York, New York 10021, USA.
Abstract:
Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) have been widely exploited for sequence-specific gene knockdown, predominantly to investigate gene function in cultured vertebrate cells, and also hold promise as therapeutic agents. Because not all siRNAs that are cognate to a given target mRNA are equally effective, computational tools have been developed based on experimental data to increase the likelihood of selecting effective siRNAs. Furthermore, because target-complementary siRNAs can also target other mRNAs containing sequence segments that are partially complementary to the siRNA, most computational tools include ways to reduce potential off-target effects in the siRNA selection process. Though these methods facilitate selection of functional siRNAs, they do not yet alleviate the need for experimental validation. This perspective provides a practical guide based on current wisdom for selecting siRNAs.
Related Concept Videos
siRNA - Small Interfering RNAs
In the cytoplasm, siRNA is processed from a double-stranded RNA, which comes from either endogenous DNA transcription or exogenous sources like a virus. This double-stranded RNA is then cleaved by the ATP-dependent...
RNA-seq
Before the discovery of RNA-seq, microarray-based methods and Sanger sequencing were used for transcriptome analysis. However, while microarray-based...
Ribosome Profiling
Applications of ribosome profiling
Ribosome profiling has many applications, including in vivo monitoring of translation inside a particular organ or tissue type and quantifying new protein synthesis levels.
The technique helps...
Experimental RNAi

