Award
NIH Reporter #1R16GM165524-01
Comprehensive Quantification of RNA Base Stacking and Its Determinants
Recipient
SUNY College at New Paltz
Award Amount
$191,000.00
Ceiling
$191,000.00
Awarded
August 07, 2026
Identifier
1R16GM165524-01
Award to SUNY College at New Paltz for research quantifying RNA base stacking energies and their modulation by physiological conditions to improve RNA structure prediction and nanostructure design.
Description
This project aims to quantify stacking energies across all 16 RNA base-stacks, determine how stacking is modulated by temperature, ionic composition, and crowding, and evaluate the functional consequences of stacking in RNA ligation and strand displacement reactions. The measurements will provide validated parameters for force-field refinement, enhance predictive modeling of RNA folding, and link stacking energetics to RNA-mediated processes, contributing to more accurate RNA structure prediction and the design of RNA-based nanostructures.