How to Use RNA in a Sentence

RNA

noun
  • Obelisks are somewhat like these because they are made of RNA.
    — Discover Magazine, 31 Jan. 2025
  • This isn't the first time RNA has been honored recently.
    — Alice Park, TIME, 7 Oct. 2024
  • This long stretch of RNA parks itself in spots along a cell's extra X chromosome, attracts proteins that bind to it in weird clumps, and silences the chromosome.
    — TIME, 2 Feb. 2024
  • But scientists are finding that our bodies are also home to exquisitely tiny rings of free-floating RNA.
    — Carl Zimmer, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2025
  • This finding suggested that the small RNA was somehow inhibiting it.
    — Paul Smaglik, Discover Magazine, 30 Oct. 2024
  • In addition, a protein model could not generate the RNA.
    — Ingrid Wickelgren, Quanta Magazine, 5 Feb. 2025
  • In future studies, the team hopes to use the discovery of this stealth RNA delivery system to create more eco-friendly fungicides.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 20 Dec. 2023
  • In this image, each color represents a different type of RNA.
    — Discover Magazine, 17 Oct. 2024
  • The fish make fewer functional copies of an RNA that helps shut down transposable element movement.
    — John Timmer, Ars Technica, 14 Aug. 2024
  • Scientists were able to extract RNA fragments from the Tasmanian tiger’s tongue, nasal cavity, brain and eye, per the statement.
    — Margherita Bassi, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Oct. 2024
  • Normally, genes are processed before transcription in order to make a readable strand of RNA.
    — Joel Richter, The Conversation, 26 July 2023
  • These vaccines use a fragment of the virus's genetic material (RNA) to teach your cells to make a protein that triggers an immune response.
    — Ayana Byrd, Health, 7 Jan. 2024
  • The work is a challenge, however, because samples often contain very low levels of active viral RNA, the molecule in which flu genomes are written.
    — Lisa M. Krieger, The Mercury News, 4 Oct. 2024
  • This non-greasy serum also uses exosomes (small vesicles packed with protein, lipids, and plant RNA) to encourage cellular renewal at the scalp and defend against stress.
    — Deanna Pai, Vogue, 6 Oct. 2024
  • Recent studies have helped shed light on the debate, with many using single-cell RNA sequencing and other advanced technologies to look at parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus and the subventricular zone.
    — Avery Hurt, Discover Magazine, 17 Jan. 2025
  • Just as those machines take plastic molecules and use them to construct objects of any shape, ribosomes take genetic information from RNA and use it to crank out proteins.
    — Corinne Purtill, Los Angeles Times, 15 Feb. 2024
  • Stroup says the team also plans to re-create their research in other organisms to see how RNA transcription changes between different animals.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 22 Jan. 2024
  • Current hypertension medications focus on hormones that cause high blood pressure; this one targets the RNA that creates the hormones.
    — Rachel Murphy, Verywell Health, 8 Aug. 2023
  • Capstan is developing therapies that modulate unhealthy cells inside the body — rather than editing the cells outside of the body — through RNA delivery methods.
    — Natallie Rocha, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Mar. 2024
  • In 2005, the pair discovered how to chemically modify one of the letters of RNA to nearly eliminate the inflammatory response.
    — Compiled By Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, Arkansas Online, 3 Oct. 2023
  • This will look at RNA medicines, monoclonal antibodies, and base-editing as novel options to improve coronary artery disease.
    — Meghana Keshavan, STAT, 10 Nov. 2023
  • The finding suggests that chiral RNA preferentially makes proteins of the opposite chirality, as is seen in nature.
    — Yasemin Saplakoglu, Quanta Magazine, 6 Sep. 2023
  • The startup is developing breakthroughs in RNA medicine, which has applications for treatments for genetic diseases.
    — Lucy Brewster, Fortune, 2 June 2023
  • Through genetic sequencing and computer modeling, my lab is able to profile all the RNA molecules in a brain region and understand how their rhythmicity – the peaks and troughs of their activity across the day – changes due to opioids.
    — Mackenzie Gamble, The Conversation, 10 Feb. 2025
  • With that sample, scientists have found evidence suggesting that asteroids had delivered water to the early Earth, and discovered the presence of uracil — a building block of RNA, a molecule that helps form proteins.
    — Katrina Miller, New York Times, 25 Sep. 2023
  • The research states that a type of RNA produced by a woman’s X chromosomes creates proteins that could make the immune system attack itself if genetic predisposition or other factors are present.
    — Emma Hinchliffe, Fortune, 2 Feb. 2024
  • The researchers also sequenced RNA in astronauts’ blood, finding that the stress of spaceflight affected the transcription of immune system genes, possibly reducing the body’s ability to defend against viruses.
    — science.org, 21 June 2024
  • So the researchers suspect that RNA editing plays a role in protecting the invertebrates’ neurons from temperature fluctuations.
    — Rachel Nuwer, Scientific American, 8 June 2023
  • However, for applications other than vaccines, a cleaner RNA product is necessary to reduce side effects.
    — Discover Magazine, 8 Jan. 2024
  • Under this concept, an early proto-life-form used RNA both for its enzymatic activities and as its genetic material.
    — Aaron Shattuck, Scientific American, 15 Oct. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'RNA.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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