Bioinformaticians at the Universite de Montreal have discovered new modelling algorithms that can be used to infer the 3D structure of ribonucleic acid (RNA) from gene sequence data, providing new tools to understand the role of this important class of cellular regulators.

These tools can be used to study the biology of RNA viruses such as HIV and also identify microRNAs, which inhibit target genes efficiently and specifically and may be the next generation of therapeutic agents.