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Interplays between transcription factors (TFs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) in gene regulation are implicated in various physiological processes. It is thus important to identify biologically meaningful network motifs involving both types of regulators to understand the key co-regulatory mechanisms underlying the cellular identity and function. However, existing motif finders do not scale well for large networks and are not designed specifically for co-regulatory networks.

A fast growing number of non-coding RNAs have recently been discovered to play essential roles in many cellular processes. Similar to proteins, understanding the functions of these active RNAs requires methods for analyzing their tertiary structures. However, in contrast to the wide range of structure-based approaches available for proteins, there is still a lack of methods for studying RNA structures.

Growing evidence demonstrates that local well-ordered structures are closely correlated with cis-acting elements in the post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. The prediction of a well-ordered folding sequence (WFS) in genomic sequences is very helpful in the determination of local RNA elements with structure-dependent functions in mRNAs.

High-throughput sequencing techniques are increasingly affordable and produce massive amounts of data. Together with other high-throughput technologies, such as microarrays, there are an enormous amount of resources in databases. The collection of these valuable data has been routine for more than a decade. Despite different technologies, many experiments share the same goal. For instance, the aims of RNA-seq studies often coincide with those of differential gene expression experiments based on microarrays. As such, it would be logical to utilize all available data.