RNA and the Interferon Mediated Antiviral Effect

When you got interested in RNA, PCR hadn't been discovered yet. That wasn't discovered until the mid 1980s. So why were you so excited about RNA at that stage before synthetic RNA had been created? And I started to work in the RNA lab in 1978. This was a three nucleotide containing short RNA molecule linked with two prime five prime, which is unusual linkage. We made it chemically and I also set up the antiviral testing lab there.