Prof. Dr. Kerstin Göpfrich
RNA design: New folds for synthetic cells
Abstract:
RNA design is still in its infancy compared to protein folding and DNA nanotechnology. Nonetheless, fundamental questions on the origins of life in an RNA world as well as the rise of RNA therapeutics make RNA design a highly exciting upcoming field. The vision of our group is to create a lipid vesicle as a simple model of a cell, capable of self-replication and evolution, that operates based on custom-engineered molecular hardware made from highly functional and folded RNA. We have recently developed a software tool, pyFuRNAce, to streamline the design of functional RNA nanostructures. By integrating specific membrane aptamers, RNA sequences which target lipid membranes, into cytoskeleton-like RNA nanostructures, we control membrane mechanics and pore formation in giant unilamellar lipid vesicles. We further show that mutagenesis can lead to emergent phenotypes and functions even in relatively simple systems. Since all our RNA nanostructures are produced by transcription from a synthetic gene, they can, in principle, transfected and expressed in cells. Due to their compatibility with directed evolution pipelines, and the possibility to integrate target aptamers and ribozymes, we envision that they contribute to the development of evolvable synthetic cells as well as RNA-based vaccines and therapeutics.
Short bio:
Kerstin Göpfrich is a biophysicist and synthetic biologist, appointed as a full professor at the Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University in 2022. Since 2026, she is also co-spokesperson of the new Cluster of Excellence SynthImmune. Previously, Kerstin led the Max Planck Reseach Group Biophysical Engineering of Life and was a Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart. She earned her PhD in Biophysics in 2017 as a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the University of Cambridge, UK. She is recipient of the Allen Distinguished Investigator Award, the Alfried Krupp Prize, the Women Interactive Materials Award, the Hector Fellow Academy Award, and several grants such as an ERC Starting Grant, and an HFSP Grant.