Chinese scientists have developed a much easier way to make the short strands of RNA that are an essential tool in understanding what genes do.
Short interfering ribonucleic acids (siRNAs) were first discovered in 1999, and found to interfere with the expression of specific genes, giving them a key role in controlling the molecular machinery in living organisms. Though initially identified in plants, they were later found in animals too, and this spurred an interest in using them as tools to investigate what specific genes do in the body.
One type of siRNAs, endoribonuclease-prepared siRNAs (esiRNAs), has recently attracted attention because of their greater specificity and their cost effectiveness. Jianzhong Xi and colleagues at Peking University have now demonstrated a lab on a chip method that makes large scale manufacture of esiRNAs much easier.
The chip consists of 96 pins. Each pin has a polymer bead at its end in which a number of DNA probes are immobilised, allowing hundreds of esiRNA products to be manipulated at the same time.
Read Catherine Bacon’s Chemistry World article online here or go straight to the HOT Lab on a Chip paper:
A polyacrylamide microbead-integrated chip for the large-scale manufacture of ready-to-use esiRNA
Huang Huang, Qing Chang, Changhong Sun, Shenyi Yin, Juan Li and Jianzhong Jeff Xi
Lab Chip, 2011, 11, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0LC00564A
