Macromolecular Design from Sequence-Activity Analysis

We investigate the sequence-activity relationship of riboswitches, potential genetic control elements for synthetic biology. A riboswitch consists of a sensor (a sequence that binds to the target molecule) fused to an actuator (a sequence that affects gene expression). The space of all possible short RNA sequences can be explored by in vitro selection. Such complete exploration could yield unprecedented insight into the design and fundamental biophysics of riboswitches. Our goal is to enable the design of customized riboswitches to control gene expression in synthetic microbes.