Current Research
Mentor: Jeffrey Kieft, PhD
Steve Bonilla is using cryogenic electron microscopy, known as cryo-EM, to visualize diverse, dynamic, functional RNA structures. A major goal of biomedical research is to be able to predict how strands of functional RNA – strands that do not code for proteins – will fold into three-dimensional structures, but it is often difficult to visualize those structures due to their small size and dynamic, fluctuating nature. Cryo-EM may now allow researchers to do this. Bonilla plans to use his training in chemical engineering and computer science to help develop a system to predict RNA structure and function.