Splicing: still so much to learn
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, USA
- Corresponding author: krainer{at}cshl.edu
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
This issue marks the 20th year since the launching of RNA in March of 1995. It is a time to celebrate, as well as to consider the substantial accomplishments achieved in these two decades, both in the RNA field as a whole, and in the specific areas in which each of us works—in my case, human pre-mRNA splicing mechanisms and regulation, and its relevance to human disease. Moreover, this is a time to reflect about where our field is headed, and what are the unique opportunities and obstacles in our path.
With no intention of being exhaustive in listing major achievements, I would first single out certain technical advances from which virtually everyone in the RNA field and beyond is substantially benefitting, and which satisfyingly emerged from careful characterization of novel natural phenomena. One of these is RNA interference, which has led to various powerful, widely used tools for targeted …
