Private messages through chat

Is it possible to send private messages through chat? If it isn’t already, I think that it would be a good idea.

Dear Matt,
This is a nice idea. We will be discussing this feature in our developers meeting. I’ve included your suggestion as #155in the bug tracker.

Yeah, we are using IRC protocol for our chatbox, so we’ll just need a little instrumentation to do this.

I’d just like to add a “second” to this request - We had this ability in Fold-It, but via a personal messaging system apart from chat. I really liked that implementation over at Fold-It, and I think it’d be an excellent addition here at EteRNA as well!