New machine learning method enhances computational prediction of RNA structures

Researchers present ARES (Atomic Rotationally Equivariant Scorer) – a machine learning method that significantly improves the computational prediction of RNA structures over previous approaches.

Understanding these structures could help uncover the biological functions of RNA, including non-coding RNA, and pave the way for discovering novel drugs for diseases that remain untreatable. However, experimentally solving RNA structure remains a challenge despite decades of effort, and only a few RNA structures are currently known.