I originally hail from east of Albany, NY, but have had the opportunity to live and learn around the country. I studied Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Chicago for my undergraduate degree and dabbled in research surrounding the biophysics of protein folding and RNA folding in CRISPR complexes. I went to graduate school at Harvard University in Chemistry and Chemical Biology. I was lucky enough to get to study the origin of life with a diverse group of scientists and travel to places like Iceland, Norway and Yellowstone to consider the beginning of life. I spent the first two years of my independent academic career at Bates College in Maine, where I began research on early life metabolism as it can be mediated by RNA. I came to 91³Ô¹ÏÍø so I can dedicate my career to undergraduate education and research, and to support the development of students as whole people.
Have you ever wondered how life began? Sometime between 3.8 and 4.2 billion years ago, chemicals reacted to form biological building blocks, which combined and evolved to our current living systems over the past several billion years. I aim to study the RNA world using biochemical and biophysical techniques and am particularly interested in how RNA can catalyze energy generating reactions or aid in early metabolism. Scientists of all kinds are welcome- whether you are interested in inorganic complexes and seeing how they interact with RNA and possibly aid in polymerization or degradation, or you want to synthesize organic intercalators to increase localization of catalysts, or if you want to evolve RNA with new and interesting chemistry, you fit in at the Pazienza lab.
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