Patent ID: 8768630

Claim:
A method comprising: a) executing by a computer a step of receiving into computer memory data identifying an mRNA nucleotide sequence representing a gene or portions thereof, the nucleotide sequence has an upstream region that is upstream of translation start site, a downstream region that is downstream of translation stop site, and an open reading frame; b) executing by the computer a step of receiving into computer memory data identifying a second set of microRNA (miRNA) nucleotide sequences, each microRNA sequence of the second set having a 5′ miRNA section and a 3′ miRNA section; c) executing by the computer a step of evaluating the downstream region for sub-regions that are capable of stably hybridizing to at least of a portion of the 5′ miRNA section; d) executing by the computer a step of evaluating the upstream region for sub-regions that are capable of stably hybridizing to at least of a portion of the 3′ miRNA section; and e) executing by the computer a step of identifying candidates for microRNA-mRNA complexes as combinations of stably hybridizing sub-regions of the downstream region to portions of the 5′ miRNA section and stably hybridizing sub-regions of the upstream region to portions of the 3′ miRNA section.