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Commentary

Nature Chemical Biology 3, 739–744 (1 December 2007) | doi:10.1038/nchembio1207-739

Recognizing and exploiting differences between RNAi and small-molecule inhibitors

William A Weiss , Stephen S Taylor & Kevan M Shokat

RNA-mediated silencing has rapidly arisen as a critical tool in the arsenal of the molecular biologist. This strategy facilitates the generation of loss-of-function mutations in individual cells or in whole organisms and enables investigators to interrogate the impact of these mutations.