Dharmacon was founded in 1995 by Stephen Scaringe as Dharmacon Research to develop and commercialize a new technology for RNA oligonucleotide synthesis. The original Dharmacon focus and vision was to develop 2'-ACE RNA technology as the standard for RNA synthesis and to advance RNA oligo-dependent applications and technologies. When RNA interference (RNAi) emerged in the late 1990s, Dharmacon was poised to provide RNAi-related products to the multitude of academic and industry researchers. Dharmacon has become an important resource for those investigating the mechanisms of siRNA (small interfering RNA)-induced gene knockdown and applying the specificity and potency of RNAi to human biotherapeutics. Dharmacon's expertise in bioinformatics, RNA biology, and synthesis chemistry has allowed it