Carnegie Mellon University

Computational models cannot yet robustly design RNAs that fold correctly in vitro, slowing the development of vital antibacterial, antitumor, and antiviral therapies.  The research team proposes a novel strategy to rapidly advance RNA bioengineering:  Internet-scale RNA design competitions rigorously scored by wet-lab feedback and organized through an online game.  Launched in early 2011, EteRNA hosts a community of over 25,000 citizen scientists who outperform existing RNA design methods.  The research team proposes to formalize this community’s insights into the first extensively validated automated RNA design algorithm, EteRNAbot.  They also propose to expand the game’s scale to thousands of hypotheses per month, enabling a new scale of public involvement in hypothesis-driven research.  Finally, they propose to extend the EteRNA interface from secondary structure design to fully 3D engineering of RNA-based biomedical sensors and scaffolds.  They will evaluate success via high-throughput experimentation; by the publication of tools and principles generated by EteRNA players; and by the widespread adoption of EteRNA’s novel high-throughput experimentation paradigm into future citizen science projects.