8.592 - HST.452J (Spring 2022)

Statistical Physics in Biology

Lecture 16

RNA secondary structure

  1. Structure and function of RNA
  2. The 'RNA world' hypothesis
  3. Structural levels:
  4. Representations without psuedoknots
  5. Algorithms for finding optimal secondary structure: Nussinov (article), unafold web-server (M. Zuker)
  6. Recursive (Hartree) calculation of partition function
  7. RNA floding and Matrix Field Theory (McGenus)
  8. Counting secondary structures. [Chandrasekhar, Rev. Mod. 15, 1 (1943)]
  9. The melting of a hairpin

(Lecture notes)

8.592  lecture- last update 3/11/22  by M. Kardar