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# System prepended metadata

title: 'Silvi Rouskin, PhD | “Improving RNA Structure Predictions with Diverse Data and Machine Learning” | RNA CASP SIG #19'

---

Please join us for our next RNA CASP SIG Silvi Rouskin , PhD:

"Improving RNA Structure Predictions with Diverse Data and Machine Learning"

[Zoom](https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__stanford.zoom.us_j_93445935624-3Fpwd-3DK0VUWk0zaVNMZlU1U0xUMS8vSWUwZz09&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=0lUjW57N1liiDVO5wzD9g5qjic3xcIQ5O7wLU7r81hA&m=arbubYGVlHU7r5U62CgEmarGmxHnOtTysQwN9aCJsuHl9sQym0QFMDa2Gn41dEdZ&s=3rWBZ-vu-LrB-wgVAUts27AvWDWJFR6IEQNM23lG4eM&e=) link Tuesday May 14 (updated); Pacific Daylight Time 8 am / Eastern Daylight Time 11 am / Central Summer European Time: 5 pm / China Standard Time: 11 pm

If you have recommendations on topics of discussion or speakers, please feel free to email us as well.

We have also recently implemented a [schedule](https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__tinyurl.com_rna-2Dsig-2Dschedule&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=0lUjW57N1liiDVO5wzD9g5qjic3xcIQ5O7wLU7r81hA&m=arbubYGVlHU7r5U62CgEmarGmxHnOtTysQwN9aCJsuHl9sQym0QFMDa2Gn41dEdZ&s=xrR8IIYhN9IQ0VlVjc_-o3oEldm_GbVPpvHEIGeihHw&e=) to view past and upcoming seminars, as well as a calendar [(google](https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__tinyurl.com_rna-2Dsig-2Dcalendar&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=0lUjW57N1liiDVO5wzD9g5qjic3xcIQ5O7wLU7r81hA&m=arbubYGVlHU7r5U62CgEmarGmxHnOtTysQwN9aCJsuHl9sQym0QFMDa2Gn41dEdZ&s=lkoboo6d_x60maIZC4BobSkhETuYI2_H2Yk2Q3ZJDSI&e=) [outlook)](https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__tinyurl.com_rna-2Dsig-2Dcal-2Dics&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=0lUjW57N1liiDVO5wzD9g5qjic3xcIQ5O7wLU7r81hA&m=arbubYGVlHU7r5U62CgEmarGmxHnOtTysQwN9aCJsuHl9sQym0QFMDa2Gn41dEdZ&s=RF0zJUjFA35qyo92Uq6Yt-fty5C1Nm2J5WJJDb5uJwA&e=) which can be added to automatically have events added to your calendar. Hopefully these will help everyone keep up to date.

See you soon,

Rachael Kretsch (Rhiju Das and Wah Chiu labs @Stanford)
Marcin Magnus (Elena Rivas lab @Harvard)

For recording see playlist on [YouTube @CASPRNASIG](https://www.youtube.com/@CASPRNASIG).

Zoom link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/93445935624?pwd=K0VUWk0zaVNMZlU1U0xUMS8vSWUwZz09

# BIO:

Dr. Silvi Rouskin was born in Bulgaria into a family of rock musicians. She immigrated by herself to the USA at the age of 15 and obtained a bachelor’s degree in physics from the Florida Institute of Technology five years later. Silvi then received a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco, in 2014. She subsequently started her own lab as a Whitehead Fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, where she worked until 2021. At that time, she accepted a position as an assistant professor of microbiology at Harvard Medical School where she is currently employed.
 
# ABSTRAT:

 My lab is dedicated to uncovering the intricate structures formed by RNA inside cells. Deciphering the structures adopted by complex biological molecules is key to elucidating their function. While the atomic details of over 180,000 protein structures are well-documented, the intricate folds of cellular RNAs remain less understood. As an independent Whitehead Fellow, I discovered that the RNA of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can adopt alternative configurations inside living cells, allowing it to regulate the activity of different genes. Now, by pioneering and using a suite of cutting-edge tools in computational biology, biochemistry, and single-molecule structural modeling, I plan to build a comprehensive database containing the structures of hundreds of thousands of RNA molecules from humans, bacteria, and viruses. This resource will serve as the foundation for developing a machine-learning algorithm capable of predicting RNA structures from their sequences. My research aims to deepen our understanding of RNA’s roles in gene regulation and pave the way for identifying new RNA-based targets for therapeutic interventions against infections and diseases such as cancer.