Biological sciences professor and chair Eric Hayden’s research presentation was voted as a Top 10 presentation at the inaugural RNA Canada meeting. The meeting included over 500 leading academic, biotech and agricultural researchers from around the world, and focused on innovations in RNA technologies, including the mRNA technologies that enabled the rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccines.
Hayden’s presentation, titled “High-throughput Ribozyme Assays for RNA Innovations,” highlighted recent work in his lab that is focused on understanding and harnessing laboratory evolution in order to engineer new RNA functions. His worked highlighted research from current Biomolecular Sciences Ph.D. student Gianluca Peri, a past Computing Ph.D. student Jim Beck and a postdoctoral scholar Clementine Gibard. Current Biomolecular Sciences Ph.D. students Jeremy Herrera-Gutierrez and Katie Matteo also attended the conference and presented posters highlighting their graduate research on RNA.