Batch RNAi selector: a standalone program to predict specific siRNA candidates in batches with enhanced sensitivity.

RNA interference (RNAi) is a popular and effective method for silencing gene expression. siRNAs should be gene-specific and effective to achieve specific and potent gene silencing. However, most currently available siRNA design programs are web-based programs that either require each sequence be submitted individually, making large-batch analyses difficult to conduct, or only provide limited options for searching off-target candidates (e.g. NCBI-BLAST). We have developed a stand-alone, enhanced RNAi design program that overcomes these shortcomings. We have implemented WU-BLAST, FASTA and SSEARCH homology searches for siRNA candidates to improve gene specific siRNA selection and to identity siRNA candidates that could lead to off-target gene silencing. We also included many new features such as siRNA score calculation and calculation of siRNA internal stability to help select highly potent siRNAs. This program is freely available for academic and commercial use (), and can be installed and run on any Linux machine. Our program automates the search for siRNAs and the resulting data files including a list of siRNA primers with scores and database search results for each siRNA candidate are stored locally for easy retrieval and inspection when needed.