Abstract

RNAs are central molecules to life, and are emerging as powerful components of biotechnologies. As with all biomolecules, RNA function is intimately related to its structure, and RNAs can fold into exquisitely sophisticated shapes that bind molecules, control gene expression, and even perform catalysis. While we know a great deal about how RNAs fold in a test tube, we know very little about how RNAs fold inside the cell, where RNA folding is highly dynamic, involving the coupling of stochastic processes that occur across time scales ranging from microseconds to minutes. In this talk, I will provide an introduction to the ‘cellular RNA folding problem’, describe new experimental and computational tools being developed to address this problem, and end by posing some specific questions and challenges to the applied math community. The hope is to spark collaborations that could lead to a solution, which would create advances in our understanding and treatment of disease, inform the design of new biotechnologies including mRNA vaccines, and increase our understanding of life itself.