Investigating the structure-function relationships of noncoding RNAs

Dr. Alisha ‘Jonesy’ Jones, one of C&EN News 2024 Talented Twelve, is a James Weldon Johnson Assistant Professor of Chemistry at New York University in the Department of Chemistry. Jonesy was a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Dr. Michael Sattler in Munich, Germany, and earned her PhD in Chemistry in the lab of Dr. Gabriele Varani at the University of Washington.

Research in the Jones Lab focuses on investigating the structural dynamics of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and how they are linked to specific biological processes. Her team deploys a combination of biophysical, biochemical, and computational techniques to study how lncRNAs transition between various structured states and how they interact with other biomolecules. Considering that lncRNAs are critical regulators of gene expression, her lab’s work has the potential to increase overall knowledge regarding lncRNA structure-function relationships, and offers a starting point for therapeutically targeting lncRNAs when they are implicated in a disease.