What is the most effective method for validating gene expression knock down in an RNAi experiment?

 

The most accurate method for validating RNA interference is to carry out qRT-PCR on RNA isolated from an enriched or selected population of transfected cells. When carrying out these assays, special care should be taken to insure that highly reproducible biological replicates, as well as technical replicates of the qRT-PCR analysis are performed. This will enable the reliable detection of the roughly 1.75 to 2.0 threshold cycle differences between gene-specific and negative control siRNA/ shRNA transfected cells, which are typically seen in RNAi experiments.

 

QIAGEN has performed intensive validation experiments for FlexiTube and FlexiPlate siRNAs resulting in more than 3700 experimentally tested siRNA now available at GeneGlobe.