DMMC Course: TECHNIQUES & STRATEGIES IN MOLECULAR MEDICINE
1445-1530 Tuesday 5 December 2006. UCD Conway Institute Lecture Theatre, UCD
RNA
interference
Dr
Steven Gray (Institute of Molecular Medicine, TCD)
RNA interference (RNAi) is an evolutionally highly conserved process of post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) by which double stranded RNA (dsRNA), when introduced into a cell, causes sequence-specific degradation of mRNA sequences. The RNAi machinery, once it finds a double-stranded RNA molecule, cuts it up, separates the two strands, and then proceeds to destroy RNA molecules that are complementary to one of those segments, or prevent their translation into proteins. RNAi has recently been applied as an experimental technique to "knockout" genes in model organisms for experimental analysis in determining the function of a gene. The dsRNAs that trigger RNAi may therefore be usable as drugs. This presentation will outline and discuss techniques and strategies underpinning the use of RNAi in molecular medicine.
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