Elise Gray
Elise Gray is a PhD candidate in the Meyer Lab at Boston College. Her research focuses on the evolution of cis-regulatory RNAs in bacteria and in her spare time she enjoys fiber arts and exploring nature.
“I research regulatory RNAs in bacteria, including how these RNAs evolve and are maintained, including studying if these regulators are a result of convergent evolution or arose multiple times. Currently, my main project focuses on studying the diversity of RNAs that can bind to a particular regulatory protein. The native regulatory RNA that interacts with this protein is interesting because while it is broadly distributed and structurally conserved, it changes in genomic context. In contrast, there are regulators that are narrowly distributed, but structurally diverse.”