This $750,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CFDA 47.049) program supports the development of a novel platform to enable rapid and robust identification of functional RNA molecules directly within mammalian cellular environments. The research aims to solve the challenge of RNA structure sensitivity to local environments that has hindered progress in the field of functional RNA discovery.
The project will deliver a customized mammalian phage-assisted continuous evolution (RNA-mPACE) system to efficiently evolve RNA aptamers, allosteric activators, and 'glue' RNAs that function within cells. This platform is intended to provide ease-of-use, parallelization, scalability, and accelerated RNA engineering compared to current test tube-based approaches. The work is being led by Weill Medical College of Cornell University, with a planned sub-award to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to support method optimization and adaptation for viral-based continuous evolution of diverse functional RNA classes.
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