Thanks to RNA interference it's easier than ever to perform genetic knockouts in cultured cells and live animals. The idea is simple enough: deliver a short interfering RNA (siRNA) for the desired mRNA, wait a few days, and see what happens. In theory, the siRNAs (short double-stranded RNAs homologous to a region of an mRNA) will program the RNA-induced silencing complex to target the desired transcript for degradation.












