Crowdsourced RNA design discovers diverse, reversible, efficient, self-contained molecular switches

Area of Science:

• Biotechnology
• Molecular Biology
• Computational Biology

Background:

• Internet-based scientific communities offer potential for solving complex problems.
• Current platforms lack scalability for hypothesis testing and modification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop high-throughput methods for RNA sensor design and characterization.
• To enable large-scale crowdsourcing of scientific experiments.

Main Methods:

• Utilized high-throughput molecular characterization of nucleic acids.
• Employed video game-based crowdsourcing for RNA sensor design.
• Performed high-throughput functional characterization of designs.

Main Results:

• Crowdsourced designs led to near-thermodynamically optimal and reversible RNA switches.
• Developed self-contained molecular sensors coupling small molecule inputs to protein binding and fluorogenic outputs.
• Demonstrated the potential for distributed experimental bioscience.

Conclusions:

• This work presents a new paradigm for distributed experimental bioscience.
• RNA switches can be efficiently designed and optimized through crowdsourcing.
• High-throughput methods accelerate the development of molecular sensors.