RNA interference (RNAi)
ARN de interferencia
- Date
- 1998 · confidence high
- Place
- Carnegie Institution, Baltimore / UMass, Worcester, United States
- Credited to
- Andrew Fire and Craig Mello
- People
- 👤 Andrew Fire1959–👤 Craig C. Mello1960–
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Double-stranded RNA specifically silences homologous genes in C. elegans. It revealed an ancient RNA-based system of regulation and antiviral defence (siRNA, miRNA).
Nobel Prize 2006, just eight years later.
What it led to
- gene silencing as a research tool
- siRNA drugs (patisiran, 2018)
- microRNA (Ambros and Ruvkun, Nobel 2024) and post-transcriptional regulation
Built on
- co-suppression in petunias
- lin-4 in C. elegans (1993)
Made possible
- CRISPR as bacterial adaptive immunity1987-2007
- RNAi genomic screening
- RNA therapies