Honors student Diana Renteria Alvarez is co-first author on a major publication

Honors student Diana Renteria Alvarez is co-first author on a major publication. Diana performed her Honors research with Dr. Chakrabarti and his lab team. This publication is in a popular RNA journal: ‘RNA Biology‘. Three labs were competing to publish this work around the same time and Diana and her co-authors were lucky to publish it first! This is the first report on the extent of RNA secondary structures, particularly in the coding regions of mRNAs in malaria parasites. Since cells reduce mRNA hydrolysis by stabilizing double-stranded (structured) regions of mRNAs, this work has implications in the emerging field of mRNA therapeutics. Dr. Chakrabarti says “Diana did a great job during her two years in my lab. I’m very proud of her work and this again a testament and great success story of our BIOL Honors program.”