A month ago or so, I wrote about a new gene-based strategy against disease: RNAi. Â Recall that in 2006, Andrew Fire and Craig Mello won Nobel Prizes in Medicine for the discovery of RNAi. The idea of using RNAi in therapeutic applications would be to administer these small genetic sequences to “knock down” the activity… Continue reading For Whom the Cell Tolls?
Tag: RNAi
siRNA: Caveat Emptor for Preclinical Studies?
Small interfering RNA molecules (siRNA) are generating a lot of excitement in biomedical research for their ability to “knock down” specific genes– say, those of an invading virus or a tumor cell. But because viruses tend to produce small pieces of RNA, the body often “interprets” siRNA as a viral infection and launches an immune… Continue reading siRNA: Caveat Emptor for Preclinical Studies?