Muljo Stefan A, Kanellopoulou Chryssa
The CBR Institute for Biomedical Research and Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2006;342:57-72. doi: 10.1385/1-59745-123-1:57.
Conditional gene targeting is often a useful approach to elucidate the in vivo function of a gene. We use this approach to investigate the biological role of the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway in mammals. In addition, the RNAi machinery in mammalian cells can be exploited for gene knock-down experiments. In this chapter, we discuss the variety of experiments that can be performed using genetically engineered embryonic stem (ES) cells. ES cells provide a mammalian genetic system that is physiological, and tractable for mutagenesis and experimentation. This approach is economical and rapid, because it does not require production and breeding of genetically engineered mice.
