The prospects for designer single-stranded RNA-binding proteins

Spectacular progress has been made in the design of proteins that recognize double-stranded DNA with a chosen specificity, to the point that designer DNA-binding proteins can be ordered commercially. This success raises the question of whether it will be possible to engineer libraries of proteins that can recognize RNA with tailored specificity. Given the recent explosion in the number and diversity of RNA species demonstrated to play roles in biology, designer RNA-binding proteins are set to become valuable tools, both in the research laboratory and potentially in the clinic. Here we discuss the prospects for the realization of this idea.