Rhiju Das

Rhiju Das is a Professor of Biochemistry at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is also a member of Bio-X and the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford. His research focuses on computational modeling and design of RNA molecules, with applications in biology and medicine.

Dr. Das received his education from prestigious institutions:

• Ph.D. in Physics from Stanford University (2005)
• M.Res. in Biocomplexity from University College London (2000)
• M.Phil. in Physics (Radio Astronomy) from Cambridge University (1999)
• A.B. in Physics from Harvard University (1998)

Dr. Das's research interests center on predicting and designing how biopolymer sequences define and regulate structure and function, with a focus on medically important RNA and RNA/protein complexes. His lab develops algorithms to predict RNA structures and energetics at high resolution, with increasing emphasis on ribosomes and viruses. They test these ideas through community-wide blind trials and by solving molecule structures using chemical mapping, NMR, crystallography, and cryo-EM data. A notable achievement includes top models in the majority of RNA-Puzzles blind structure prediction challenges.

Complementing computational research, Dr. Das's lab develops biochemical methods to model unknown non-coding RNA structures, focusing on RNA structure and conformational changes in processes like splicing and mRNA transport in brain cells and viruses. They also design new RNA molecules for basic science, diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines through the Eterna platform, which engages citizen scientists in solving RNA design problems. Their work has produced the first algorithm for automated 3D RNA design, RNA calculators for point-of-care diagnostics, and RNA sensors for molecular computing.

Dr. Das's recent publications show a strong focus on RNA structure determination using cryo-EM, RNA design through community science (Eterna), and RNA structure prediction challenges. His work spans structural biology, computational biology, and molecular engineering, with applications in virology, diagnostics, and therapeutics. Notable 2025 publications include studies of naturally ornate RNA complexes and complex water networks around RNA, while 2024 work featured RNA-Puzzles Round V, OpenASO for antisense oligonucleotide design, and Ribonanza for deep learning of RNA structure.

Dr. Das has received numerous scientific awards:

• Gold Medal, Top US score, 2nd place worldwide, International Physics Olympiad (1995)
• British Marshall Scholar (1998-2000)
• Jane Coffin Childs Foundation Fellowship (2006-2008)
• Career Award at the Scientific Interface, Burroughs-Wellcome Foundation (2008-2015)
• Keck Medical Research Grant award (2012)
• OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award (2015)
• Discovery Innovation Award, Stanford University School of Medicine (2016)
• Stanford Medicine Endowed Faculty Scholar (2020-2023)
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator

Dr. Das advises several doctoral students including Hamish Blair, Rachael Kretsch, and Georgia Tully, and serves as a co-advisor for Christian Choe. He also mentors postdoctoral scholars Alissa Hummer and Jigyasa Verma. His research is funded by multiple sources including the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Burroughs-Wellcome Foundation, W.M. Keck Foundation, and other major grants supporting his innovative work in RNA biology and computational design.

Dr. Das leads the Das Lab at Stanford, which is centered around the Eterna platform - an open science initiative that crowdsources RNA design problems to over 250,000 players of an online video game. The platform provides scoring feedback based on actual wet-lab experiments, enabling citizen scientists to contribute to RNA research. His lab also participates in major community efforts like RNA-Puzzles and CASP for RNA structure prediction assessment, and has made significant contributions to understanding RNA structure in coronaviruses, ribosomes, and other biologically important systems.