New $15M Department of Energy Genesis Award Will Use AI to Decode the Shape of RNA

Growth of the U.S. bioeconomy is vital to American prosperity and energy independence, and its future relies on the ability to engineer microbes and crops with predictable, desirable traits. Current models do not reliably predict how genetic modifications will alter those traits, and one major reason is that they omit the three-dimensional shape of ribonucleic acid (RNA).

A new three-year, $15 million award from the Department of Energy (DOE) will support University of California San Diego Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics Navtej Toor in his effort to expand the library of known RNA structures and use it to train artificial intelligence (AI) models that predict the three-dimensional shape of RNA from its sequence alone.

The project, titled “Decoding the RNA Structurome to Secure AI Advantage for the Bioeconomy,” is one of 12 Phase II Genesis Mission awards, totaling $159 million, announced by the DOE on October 8.