Howard Hughes Team Uses RNAi to Map Cell Growth Functions of Drosophila Genome

NEW YORK, Feb. 6 (GenomeWeb News) - A team of researchers led by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute published a paper in today's issue of Science in which they used a library of dsRNA to knock down and study nearly all of the genes in the Drosophila genome.

With a library of 21,000 dsRNA molecules, the researchers assayed how knocking down each gene affected cell growth. They then selected 438 genes for further characterization. According to Norbert Perrimon, who directed the study, the group is "already applying the methodology to determine the roles of genes in many other aspects of signal transduction and cell biology."

The research team on the study included scientists from HarvardMedicalSchool, the University of Heidelberg, and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics.