iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Eterna

Jill Townley @jilltownley.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

How do researchers design an RNA in 3D when no accurate 3D prediction model exists? Eterna's collaboration with the @rdaslab.bsky.social at Stanford was able to design novel pseudoknots using a blend of secondary structure prediction and GenAI design methods. 🧪 #RNAsky

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 07/08/2026

The puzzle is available at eternagame.org/labs/14660266. Interested computational methods please send a DM. Puzzle closes August 30.

eternagame.org

Eterna

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 07/08/2026

Our Replicase pilot results found that the catalytic activity and copyability of the 71-89 polymerase ribozyme can be improved! We have launched a new puzzle for finding a version that excels at both properties simultaneously. Comp methods are encouraged to submit designs!

Puzzle interface displaying the secondary and tertiary structure of the ribozyme.

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 06/08/2026

The chemical mapping results will help these cutting-edge researchers improve how well their computational methods create a sequence to match the target structure.

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 06/08/2026

Major props to @uwproteindesign.bsky.social @jmbujnicki.bsky.social @kdidi.bsky.social @chaitjo.bsky.social Antonia Panescu, Nono Saha Cyrille Merleau, Frederic Runge for generating over 600,000 RNA sequences to fold into 1000 synthetic pseudoknots!

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 23/07/2026

OpenKnot Round 9 features secondary structures designed by players to create compact, pseudoknotted RNA using 240 bases. GenAI teams also will be testing whether their methods can perform as well as the expert players at a longer length. Check out the puzzle at: eternagame.org/labs/14343053

Screenshot of the Eterna puzzle interface

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 17/07/2026

Eternacon 12 will be Sunday, July 26, 9am to 2pm PT featuring talks on player pseudoknot design techniques, the Montparnasse algorithm solving the Eterna100, an RNA scaffold for cryo-EM, and results for our pilot Replicase puzzle. #RNAsky Free to register at eternagame.org/eternacon/2026

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 07/07/2026

Eterna's newest puzzle challenges players to design 240-base RNA strands that will fold into compact pseudoknots. The puzzle provides a metric for counting the number of pairs that cross to form large, synthetic pseudoknots. #RNAsky #citsci Check out the puzzle at eternagame.org/labs/14333719

Screenshot of a complex pseudoknot designed by Eterna player Father Z that demonstrates the puzzle interface.

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Reposted by Eterna

Stanford Medicine @stanfordmedicine.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Spotlight on geneticist William Greenleaf and biochemist Rhiju Das: They gathered insights from citizen scientists via a Stanford Medicine-designed video game to help create an affordable RNA sensor for active tuberculosis. stanmed.stanford.edu/molecule-des...

Stanford Medicine magazine: The power of research

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 25/05/2026

First AI-generated RNA with novel atomically ordered 3D fold! 🧬 The pseudoknotted secondary structure 'Kissing Multiloops' was designed by an Eterna player then solved by 3 GenAI models as confirmed by cryo-EM. ❄️🔬 #RNASky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Two dimensional and three dimensional views of three compact RNA molecules designed by generative AI methods.

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 15/05/2026

The first three CASP 17 RNA targets are molecules designed by Eterna players as part of our OpenKnot puzzle series! Another example of how dedicated citizen scientists #citsci can contribute to cutting-edge research. eternagame.org/challenges/1...

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Reposted by Eterna

Rachael Kretsch @rachael-kretsch.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

This week, learn about the crowdsource RNA design platform, Eterna, and Anthony Stohr's switch work. In the future, how could Eterna be used to tackle to 3D RNA structure problem? Meeting ID: 934 4593 5624 Passcode: 802843 Mailing list: groups.google.com/g/casp-rna-sig

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 10/03/2026

Town Hall - Saturday, March 14, 9am PT eternagame.org/news/14267278 A University of Delaware researcher will be discussing how he applied #RNA switches Eterna reported in a 2022 PNAS paper to a #CRISPR system for conditional gene activation. #citsci Screenshot of the winning switch design:

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 18/02/2026

Want to learn more? Check out our blog post on the @frameshifter.org blog: frameshifter.org/blog/rna-cal...) And if you want to support or collaborate on the next steps of this work, get in touch! (7/7)

frameshifter.org

The big deal about these tiny, player-designed molecular calculators | Frameshifter

Discovery is for everyone

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 18/02/2026

The insights generated by Eterna participants were crucial - their exploratory process and unique perspective is what created the heuristics needed for the success of automated mechanisms which can further accelerate design and deployment of technologies using this approach. (6/7)

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 18/02/2026

The relative simplicity and efficiency also leads to a promising direction for computing - biological computers that operate at a smaller scale and lower energy use than we’ve otherwise been able to produce. (5/7)

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 18/02/2026

The paper also describes how this could lead to impacts beyond diagnostics, like directed drug delivery and safe precision gene editing. You could even imagine how this could be used for, say, environmental monitoring (think water quality or molecule presence). (4/7)

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 18/02/2026

A paper published in Nature Chemistry at the end of last year (doi.org/10.1038/s415...) describes how we did exactly this, designing a fast, low-cost, easily-deployable diagnostic for active TB, a leading global health crisis. (3/7)

doi.org

Compact RNA sensors for increasingly complex functions of multiple inputs - Nature Chemistry

Designing single molecules capable of complex sensing functions is challenging. Now, using crowdsourced RNA designs from the online game Eterna, compact single-molecule sensors have been demonstrated ...

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 18/02/2026

Sensors are all over the place in biology - organisms are constantly maintaining activity of internal systems and responding to the environment. We can build on these natural systems to design our own biomolecular computers. (2/7)

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 18/02/2026

Eterna players were able to design molecular calculators which could revolutionize global health, low-energy computing, and biosensing - lets talk about why this is exciting! (1/7)

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Reposted by Eterna

Jonathan Romano @luxaritas.com · 06/01/2026

I was amazed when I saw @rachael-kretsch.bsky.social present about this in an @rdaslab.bsky.social meeting. ROOL and GOLLD are stunning (dare I say beautiful) structures. She presented about this for @eternagame.org last year too! Recording available at eternagame.org/eternacon/2025 #RNASky 🧪

eternagame.org

Eterna

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Reposted by Eterna

Jill Townley @jilltownley.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

RNA switches designed by @eternagame.org players not only are highly efficient in vitro, they also work in cells! This is so cool! 🧪 @narjournal.bsky.social @markblenner.bsky.social Metabolite-responsive scaffold RNAs for dynamic CRISPR transcriptional regulation: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

academic.oup.com

Metabolite-responsive scaffold RNAs for dynamic CRISPR transcriptional regulation

Abstract. CRISPR activation is a powerful tool to upregulate a vast array of genes in many different contexts. However, there are few dynamic CRISPR transc

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Reposted by Eterna

Chaitanya K. Joshi @chaitjo.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Introducing gRNAde: our own little "AlphaGo Moment" for RNA design! 🧬🚀 📝: tinyurl.com/gRNAde-paper Unlike proteins, RNA design has long relied on "wisdom of the crowd" (human experts) or the slow crawl of directed evolution — gRNAde changes that! 🧵👇

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 24/11/2025

A new 3-state Replicase challenge has been launched on Eterna and will only be open for two weeks before sequences are collected for experimental testing at the Das Lab. Will Eterna players be able to improve the catalytic activity of the RNA polymerase? eternagame.org/labs/14183416

The Eterna puzzle interface displaying the three states of the RNA polymerase ribozyme using RibonanzaNet in state 1 and Eternafold in states 2 and 3.

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 29/09/2025

In addition to the RibonanzaNet server hosted by @rdaslab.bsky.social, RNA structure fans can try the new pseudoknotted prediction model in Eterna's RNet Study collection. The 108 puzzles are a mix of experimentally-validated structures and synthetic fabrications. eternagame.org/collections/...

Example eight puzzles in the collection including 8ZMH 1TN1 and PKB 398

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 22/09/2025

Not exactly citizen science, but such a fun way to connect people with Nature.

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 01/08/2025

Here's a fun G-quad puzzle: eternagame.org/puzzles/1347...

eternagame.org

Eterna

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Reposted by Eterna

RCSB Protein Data Bank @rcsbpdb.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Celebrate World RNA Day on August 1 with Eterna In the latest Education Corner, learn about Eterna, an online game which models the base pairing and secondary structure of RNA sequences cdn.rcsb.org/rcsb-pd...

cdn.rcsb.org

EDUCATION CORNER: Interactive RNA Education with the Eterna Game

Eterna is an online game which models the base pairing and secondary structure of RNA sequences.

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 23/07/2025

Coming up this weekend, Eternacon will feature presentations about fellow #citsci platform @zooniverse.bsky.social and how participants of both Zooniverse and Eterna have created #machinelearning tools for projects. @noirlabastro.bsky.social Register for free at eternagame.org/eternacon/2025

Blue image of ROOL nanocage made of RNA with text on top noting Eternacon dates as July 26 and 27.

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 21/07/2025

Hear directly from Eterna lead developer and Frameshifter director @luxaritas.com at Eternacon this weekend: eternagame.org/eternacon/2025

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 21/07/2025

This is a step that our team has discussed for some time, and we initially shared our plan to start a new organization with our community a few months ago. We're excited to move forward with this next step in Eterna's governance. Same core staff and a renewed focus on sustaining and growing Eterna.

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 21/07/2025

Meet @frameshifter.org, the new nonprofit program established to steward Eterna's future and advance public engagement in scientific research through games, collective and hybrid intelligence, and human centered design.

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 17/07/2025

Eterna players successfully designed antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) to bind with specific regions of the intron and restore F8 exon 16 splicing. A big thank you to @ucscscience.bsky.social for collaborating with us on this cutting-edge research! #citizenscience @rdaslab.bsky.social

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 16/07/2025

Registration for Eterna's annual online conference July 26-27 is open! Come hear from both researchers and players about new approaches to structure-based RNA design and understanding RNA structure. #citsci Full program and free registration at eternagame.org/eternacon/2025

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Reposted by Eterna

RCSB Protein Data Bank @rcsbpdb.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Summer Newsletter Published Highlights training events, the Ligand Expo shutdown; accessing IHM data at RCSB PDB, and more. In the Education Corner, learn about Interactive RNA Education with the Eterna Game. cdn.rcsb.org/rcsb-pd...

cdn.rcsb.org

RCSB PDB Quartely Newsletter | Summer 25 | Issue 106

In this issue: This issue highlights the new training events, PDB-IHM news, articles describing PDB impact, and more

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 14/06/2025

Zooniverse taking the lead in using #machinelearning as a tool for participatory science projects.

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Reposted by Eterna

Jill Townley @jilltownley.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Looking forward to attending my first Conference for Advancing the Participatory Sciences this week and delivering a presentation during the Scientific Contributions session on how Eterna players created a large dataset of RNA sequences with pseudoknots for machine learning. 🧪 #CAPS2025

SHAPE data of a mutated version of PKB364

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 25/04/2025

Eterna players support the RNA research being performed by academic labs at US universities and strongly believe federal funding of these research programs should be fully restored to maintain America's leadership in both science and biomedical entrepreneurship.

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 25/04/2025

National DNA Day celebrates the completion of the human genome project in 2003 and the discovery of the double helix in 1953. The continuing work of dedicated scientists to learn more about the functioning of genes and RNA in the human body is leading to important advances in medicine.

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 14/04/2025

If you weren't able to attend the workshop, be sure to stop by booth 502 to see our RNA folding game in action. #ASBMB25

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 13/04/2025

Tomorrow morning in room 470! #ASBMB25

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 05/04/2025

Machine learning should be able to pick up on the reactivity patterns of these structural motifs, such as tetraloop receptors. #RNAsky

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 05/04/2025

"The chemical alphabet of RNA is also harder to interpret: the four chemical bases that make up RNA are less distinct than the 20 amino acids found in proteins. That means that each RNA base contains less information than an amino acid." True, but RNA has distinct structural motifs.

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 05/04/2025

Great review of new RNA structure prediction methods!

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 24/03/2025

Videos of the presentations are available on the Eterna website at eternagame.org/eternacon/2024. Eternacon 2025 will be July 26-27. 🧬Come get involved with #citizenscience!🧪

eternagame.org

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 24/03/2025

Our 2024 online conference featured two talks on how innovative Eterna players helped RNA structure researchers improve the preparation of RNA sequences for chemical mapping, particularly formatting the padding and barcodes to reduce primer misfolds and smooth read counts. (Link below⬇️)

Screenshot of the conference presentation on barcode composition.

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Eterna @eternagame.org · 24/03/2025

Hello World The Eterna RNA structure modeling and puzzle platform has landed in the much happier place. We look forward to continuing conversations with the biochemistry, molecular biology, bioinformatics, machine learning, and participatory science communities.

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