Cell surface glycoRNA biology

Ryan Flynn, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in HSCRB and a Principal Investigator in the Stem Cell Program at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Ryan Flynn’s laboratory is focused on the exploration and discovery of how biopolymers like RNA and glycans work together to control cellular processes in the context of human disease.

Ryan earned his B.S. in biology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, under the mentorship of Phil Sharp, where he first learned deeply about RNA biology. He completed his M.D. and Ph.D. in cancer biology in the Medical Science Training Program at Stanford University, where he was mentored by Howard Chang. During his Ph.D., Ryan focused on developing tools to study the RNA world and became curious about how other biopolymers may regulate RNA. He then worked in the laboratory of Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi (Stanford University) where he learned about the glycobiology and made the first set of observations around the post-transcriptional modification of RNAs with N-glycans, establishing a direct link between RNA biology and the cell’s secretory pathway.

Learn more about Ryan and his research