Talk title: Worldwide competitions and the RNA folding problem

Speaker: Rhiju Das, PhD
Professor of Biochemistry
Stanford University

Abstract:
The discovery and design of biologically important RNA molecules has lagged behind proteins, in part due to the general difficulty of three-dimensional RNA structural characterization. What are the prospects for an AlphaFold for RNA? I'll describe some recent progress in modeling RNA structure from old-fashioned and new machine learning, cryoelectron microscopy, and current and upcoming internet-scale competitions hosted on the Eterna, Kaggle, and CASP platforms.

Speaker Bio:
Rhiju Das is seeking to solve three main problems related to the visualization and design of RNA. Das and his team are focused on predicting RNA structure from sequence alone; identifying the 3D structure of RNA-driven machines and their partners and substrates in situ; and designing RNA machines without going through numerous rounds of trial-and-error. The team works at the intersection of theoretical physics, experimental biochemistry, and computer science, and engages a large community of citizen scientists in their research through the Eterna game. 

Host: Lukasz Joachimiak, PhD