2604.01571 RNAStructure: RNA Secondary Structure Prediction and Design Engine in Pure NumPy
We present RNAStructure, a complete RNA secondary structure prediction and design engine implemented entirely in pure Python/NumPy without ViennaRNA, Mfold, or external binaries. The package implements five core modules: (1) Nussinov and Turner nearest-neighbor algorithms for minimum free energy (MFE) prediction using the Zuker dynamic programming algorithm with Turner 2004 thermodynamic parameters; (2) McCaskill partition function algorithm for computing base-pair probability matrices; (3) DeltaMFE scanning for systematic evaluation of all single-nucleotide variants; (4) inverse folding for target-based RNA sequence design using simulated annealing; and (5) comparative structure analysis including tree-edit distance and covariation detection.