Targeting cellular RNA to modulate its biological function is a promising therapeutic approach, but designing small molecules to interact with a specific RNA and degrade it has been challenging.

RNA is a central biological macromolecule, now widely harnessed in medicine and nanotechnology. Like proteins, RNA function often depends on its precise three-dimensional structure. A recent study ...

These random molecules were fed a collection of three-base-long RNAs, each linked to a chemical tag. The idea was that if a molecule is capable of ligating one of these short RNA fragments to itself, ...