Patent ID: 8457902

Claim:
A method for selecting from a plurality of different siRNAs one or more siRNAs for silencing a target gene in an organism, each different siRNA in said plurality of different siRNAs targeting a different target sequence in a transcript of said target gene, said method comprising, (i) for each of said siRNA in said plurality of different siRNAs, predicting off-target genes of said siRNA from among a plurality of genes, wherein said off-target genes are genes other than said target gene and are directly silenced by said siRNA; (ii) ranking said plurality of different siRNAs according to the number of off-target genes; and (iii) selecting one or more siRNAs for which said number of off-target genes is below a given threshold, wherein at least one of steps (i), (ii) or (iii) is performed by a suitably programmed computer.