What important controls should be included in a well designed RNAi experiment?
Negative controls are of critical importance, when performing RNAi studies, in order to confirm that any observed molecular and/or cellular changes are due to the sequence-specific RNAi event. Ideally you should use a scrambled artificial sequence that does not match any of the genes of the cell line/cell type being studied. It is important that appropriate experiments be carried out in advance to validate that the negative control siRNA under consideration has minimal impact on cell viability, proliferation, and global gene expression. The molar amount of negative control siRNA molecules used must be the same as the amount of experimental siRNA that are to be used in the knock down studies. Positive controls are also very useful, particularly when carrying out preliminary transfection optimization and/or assay development studies. As with the negative controls, positive controls should be experimentally validated in your model cell line of interest, at the appropriate siRNA concentrat
