Applications of RNA Interference in Biomedical Research

RNA interference has emerged as a natural mechanism for silencing gene expression. This ancient cellular antiviral response can be harnessed to allow specific inhibition of the function of any chosen target genes, including those involved in causing diseases such as cancer, AIDS, and hepatitis. RNA interference is already proving to be an invaluable research tool, allowing much more rapid characterisation of the function of known genes. More importantly, the technology considerably bolsters functional genomics to aid in the identification of novel genes involved in disease processes. Therefore, the first half of this course will introduce the action of RNAi, particularly how to use of RNAi for knocking down expression of target genes in a number of different eukaryotes; the second half of this course will explore in depth the applications of RNAi in biomedical research.