Chemin Lee is a graduate student who studies how short stretches of RNA decide the fate of the mRNAs that carry them. Viruses are full of such elements, evolved to keep their RNAs stable and their proteins coming, and Chemin searches among them for ones that work in vertebrate cells.
Chemin is a co-first author of a 2026 Cell study that built a functional atlas of RNA elements from vertebrate viruses, identifying sequences that stabilize RNA and enhance translation: a resource for designing mRNAs that last longer and make more protein.
Publications with our lab
- Functional atlas of vertebrate viral RNA elements that stabilize RNA and enhance translation
Cell (2026), 189(22):7105-7120.e12