"Predicting RNA structure and RNA-ligand docking from limited data" with Shi-Jie Chen, University of Missouri-Columbia (Online Seminar)

Title: Predicting RNA structure and RNA-ligand docking from limited data

Speaker: Shi-Jie Chen, University of Missouri-Columbia

Hosted by: Theodore Kwaku Dayie

Abstract: Ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules play spectacularly versatile roles in living cells. Emerging biomedical advances such as precision medicine and synthetic biology point to RNA as the central regulator and information carrier.  We are interested in predicting RNA structure, stability, and kinetics from the nucleotide sequence, and the design of molecules for therapeutic applications.  For example, given the limited availability of crystal/NMR structures, how to build the native fold from the sequence? For a given RNA target, how to predict RNA-small molecule interaction and identify small molecules as potential drugs? Using physical and chemical principles, we recently developed IsRNA for RNA 3D structure prediction and RLDock for RNA-small molecule interactions. I will describe these novel approaches and the proof of principles in RNA 3D structure prediction and in predicting RNA-small molecule docking.