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Updated: Apr 6, 2026

DNA-Tethered RNA Polymerase for Programmable In vitro Transcription and Molecular Computation
Published on: December 29, 2021
Mammalian synthetic circuits with RNA binding proteins for RNA-only delivery
Liliana Wroblewska1, Tasuku Kitada1, Kei Endo2
1Department of Biological Engineering, Synthetic Biology Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Abstract:
Synthetic regulatory circuits encoded in RNA rather than DNA could provide a means to control cell behavior while avoiding potentially harmful genomic integration in therapeutic applications. We create post-transcriptional circuits using RNA-binding proteins, which can be wired in a plug-and-play fashion to create networks of higher complexity. We show that the circuits function in mammalian cells when encoded in modified mRNA or self-replicating RNA.
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