RNA interference (RNAi) is a powerful genetic tool to determine gene function in living cells. In the RNAi Screening Facility, located in the BioQuant Centre of Heidelberg University we co-develop with our customers assays for high-throughput RNAi screening and provide a fully automated fluorescence microscopy-based screening platform.

Besides the facility tasks, we move in the development section of the facility in three major direction: 1) expanding the target classes from protein-coding to non-coding RNAs 2) correlative light microscopy which creates an image processing supported link between fast, but low-resolution microscopy (wide-field) and slow, but high-resolution microscopy (confocal, PALM or STORM) and 3) high-density cell arrays. In my talk an introduction to RNAi screening, examples of screens carried out in the facility and an outlook to the future of systems biology related high-content RNAi screening will be presented.

Dr. Holger Erfle
Head of RNAi Screening Facility
BioQuant
Heidelberg, Germany