Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2011
Summary
In 2000, scientists triumphantly announced they had deciphered the human genome, the blueprint for human life; in 2001, almost the entire human genome sequence became principally known. In 2003, the Human Genome Project was completed. By laying out in order the 3.2 billion units of our DNA, researchers sparked a firestorm of discovery and an explosion of genomic knowledge, which have been accompanied by rapidly emerging novel genomic technologies, including microarrays, whole-genome single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chips, RNA interference (RNAi) high-throughput screening (HTS), and so forth. All these have launched a new era – the genomic revolution era, which offers us boundless potential and great promise. Foremost are prospects in health, ranging from discovering cures for cancer to developing personalized medical products for individuals. The success in applying the “genomic revolution” to the discovery and development of new medical products largely depends on our ability to understand gene and gene interactions associated with drug response and disease. RNAi is a natural mechanism for gene silencing that can be harnessed to reveal information about gene function, leading to advances not only in drug target identification and validation, but also in the development of a potentially whole new class of therapeutic agents based on RNAi.
RNAi was first characterized as post-transcriptional gene silencing in petunia. Later studies in Caenorhabditis elegans revealed that the interference with gene function was triggered by the presence of double-stranded RNA.
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- Optimal High-Throughput ScreeningPractical Experimental Design and Data Analysis for Genome-Scale RNAi Research, pp. ix - xivPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011