The discovery of RNA interference (RNAi) in C. elegans transformed how we study and manipulate genes. Today, this same mechanism that was once a curiosity of basic biology is the foundation of life-saving RNA therapeutics like Onpattro® and Venclexta®.
In C. elegans, RNAi can spread systemically, silencing genes throughout the whole organism, and it can be triggered simply by feeding bacteria engineered to produce double-stranded RNA.
With ready-to-use bacterial libraries targeting nearly every C. elegans gene, we can:
- Silence single or multiple genes in vivo.
- Model disease-relevant phenotypes.
- Validate human-relevant targets before mammalian studies.