Author:RNAi Therapeutics: How Likely, How Soon?, published in PLoS Biology 2004;2(1):0018-0020
RNA interference (RNAi) has been called “one of the most has exciting discoveries in biology in the last couple decades,” and since it was first recognized by Andrew Fire et al. in 1998, it has quickly become one of the most powerful and indispensable tools in the molecular biologist's toolkit. Using short double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) molecules, RNAi can selectively silence essentially any gene in the genome. It is an ancient mechanism of gene regulation, found in eukaryotes as diverse as yeast and mammals, and probably plays a central role in controlling gene expression in all eukaryotes. In the lab, RNAi is routinely used to reveal the genetic secrets of development, intracellular signaling, cancer, infection, and a full range of other phenomena. But can the phenomenon hailed by the journal Science as the “Breakthrough of the Year” in 2002 break out of the lab and lead to novel therapies as well? Pharmaceutical giants are hoping so, and several biotech companies have bet their futures on it, but not everyone is sanguine about the future of RNAi therapy.
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Author: Research Updates from the 1999 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Cell Biology, published in Bioscience (you need a subscription to view this online)
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