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The silent treatment

Nature volume 422, page 342 (2003)Cite this article

Genetica, a start-up company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, co-founded by Gregory Hannon at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, is developing RNAi technology for high-throughput target validation in mammalian cells. Hannon and his colleagues in New York have done much of the recent work in the stable RNAi suppression of gene expression in mammalian cells.

Scientists at Bristol-Myers Squibb, based in Princeton, New Jersey, are trying to create RNAi reagents for the entire proteome, to allow analysis of all expressed genes. But there are still problems with the method, says Pam Carroll, senior research investigator in applied genomics at the company. “Most researchers use synthetic RNA double-stranded oligos that are expensive and there is still variability in response. Nonetheless, it has been an amazing year for RNA interference as a mammalian target validation technology,” she says. For example, only recently has RNAi been successfully used in mammalian model systems.

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  1. Caitlin Smith is a science writer based in Portland, Oregon.

    • Caitlin Smith
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Smith, C. The silent treatment. Nature 422, 342 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/422343a

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