Rhiju Das

Dr. Das is a computational biochemist at Stanford University School of Medicine. His lab seeks a predictive understanding of how RNA molecules code for complex biological machines. The lab's computer algorithms have consistently achieved leading predictions in world-wide structure prediction trials. Complementary to these computer methods, Dr. Das is developing high-throughput ‘multidimensional chemical mapping’ experiments to uncover three-dimensional structures and conformational changes of non-coding RNAs in their biological milieu, leading to discoveries of RNA regulons and influenza packaging signals that are critical for mammalian development and viral infection. Towards novel molecules of biomedical interest, Dr. Das leads the Eterna massive open laboratory, which couples a 100,000-player videogame to the lab’s massively parallel experimental tools and deep learning, the first such platform in citizen science. Dr. Das’s research has been recognized with the Burroughs-Wellcome Career Award at the Interface of Science, a W.M. Keck Medical Research Program award, and the OpenEye/American Chemical Society Outstanding Junior Faculty Award. Dr. Das mentors students from the biochemistry, biophysics, biomedical informatics, chemistry, and learning sciences Ph.D. programs.