Awarded in 2014
Home Department: Microbiology & Immunology
Faculty Advisors: Jeffrey Glenn (Microbiology & Immunology) and Rhiju Das (Physics)

Research Title: Identification and targeting of a novel pangenotypic RNA secondary structural element that mediates influenza A virus packaging and disease

Research Description: Influenza A virus causes major morbidity and mortality worldwide. Current antiviral therapies focus on viral proteins, but frequent gene reassortment events render such therapeutics largely inadequate. Just as many antibiotics target RNA secondary structure, Rachel envisages a new category of antivirals that will similarly target RNA structures within viral genomes. Using novel chemical mapping technologies, her research recently discovered a highly conserved RNA structural element essential for influenza genome packaging. Rachel’s future work aims to further characterize this RNA structure-function relationship and develop a high-throughput, small molecule-RNA structure screen to identify inhibitors for a new class of influenza therapeutics.

WHERE IS SHE NOW?

Rachel is the co-founder and director of R&D for a biopharmaceutical start-up in stealth mode.