Dynamic molecular imprinted RNAs to decipher cellular landscapes

Developing ligands with high affinity and selectivity to decipher complex biochemical processes is a grand challenge in chemistry. Can we use well-known epigenetic modifications to template the dynamic assembly of molecules onto RNA polymers to build novel synthetic protein receptors and employ them to decode cellular landscapes and study topological and dynamic features of cell surface proteins?

I want to combine dynamic combinatorial chemistry, in vitro selection and RNA nanotechnology to develop dynamic molecular imprinted RNA polymers displaying strong binding and specificity towards biologically relevant targets. I aim at using this technology for single-molecule imaging and spatial profiling of cell surface receptors to study protein expression levels and clustering dynamics, providing insights into fundamental biological processes such as cell communication and hold future potential to monitor biomarker alterations in response to diseases or drug treatments.