Awarded in 2024
Home Department: Chemistry
Faculty Advisors: Steven Banik (Chemistry), Xiaojing Gao (Chemical Engineering), and Tom Soh (Radiology, Electrical Engineering, Bioengineering)

Research Title: A Platform for Examining Small Molecule-Mediated Manipulation of RNA

The lack of tools for identifying small molecules that bind and recruit proteins to RNA has limited RNA therapeutic development. The advance of next-generation drugs that target proteins has benefited from numerous designer assays that enable the study of protein manipulations in cells; however, analogous approaches remain underdeveloped for exploring potential therapeutic mechanisms targeting RNA. Salvador is developing a platform that can detect small molecule-mediated recruitment of an effector protein to selectively modulate an RNA. This work seeks to demonstrate the potential in utilizing induced proximity to manipulate RNA, enabling translational approaches to validate mechanisms of action for therapeutic benefit.