RNAi is Discovered!
Small, non-coding RNA caught the attention of the scientific community in 1993 in a paper published by Victor Ambros' research group, who was working with the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) (1). The small non-coding RNA was later named microRNA (miRNA), and this is now known to be an endogenous product from the organism's own genome (if exogenous, it´s instead termed small-interfering RNA, siRNA) (Reviewed in 2). Some years later, American scientists Andrew Fire and Craig Mello discovered that simultaneous injection of sense and antisense dsRNA of the unc-22 gene (which codes for myofilament protein) into the gonads of C. elegans led to pronounced twitching in the subsequent generation (3).