I am currently planning some MSc/BSc projects that will require knockdown work. I haven't knocked anything down myself since 2015, when I used Dharmacon siRNA. I'm a bit out of date! Now in 2021, what are you using for 'simple' knockdown experiments? I'm not really interested in going down the CRISPR route. I'm looking for something off the shelf (or quick for a company to synthesize), with minimal optimisation needed in our lab, and likely to 'work' for the students. What is your go-to for these kinds of experiments nowadays?
It's been a couple of years since I did siRNA knockdown experiment but I found Thermo Fisher's Silencer Select siRNAs to work pretty well (see picture below). I like that TS has them designed for many different mRNAs and lncRNAs so there's plenty of targets and assays to choose from. Don't forget to also order their Silencer Select negative and positive controls. Regarding the experiment, I transfected 20 pM of each oligo into a glioblastoma stable cell line and actually tried 2 different volumes of Lipofectamine RNAiMAX (5 or 7,5 μl), with both working very well. MOCK = Silencer Select Negative Control #1; NK = untreated cells.
Silencer Select siRNAs are great, and Dharmacon siRNA as well - in terms of potency and specificity
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