Laura Gonzalez Garcia, postdoctoral researcher in the Nelson Lab at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI), has been named a 2026 Pew Latin American Fellow and will receive support for her research into RNA modifications.
The highly competitive Pew Latin American Fellows Program supports the training of early-career scientists from Latin American countries as they complete biomedical research projects in the United States. Dr. Gonzalez Garcia is one of just ten researchers selected for the 2026 cohort. Her project stands out among the cohort for its use of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and its focus on a fundamental biological phenomenon that applies far beyond biomedical sciences.
Within cells, ribonucleic acids (RNAs) play vital roles in bridging the gap between the genetic code and its functional outputs, including carrying the instructions to make proteins (e.g., mRNAs) and facilitating protein assembly according to those instructions (e.g., tRNAs and rRNAs). Dr. Gonzalez Garcia’s research focuses on a chemical modification of RNA called dihydrouridine (DHU), and explores how this modification impacts mRNA function and stability to ultimately shape biology at the cellular and organismal levels.
Her work is especially compelling given the universal importance of DHU across the tree of life and the remarkable conservation of the enzymes that generate it (DHU synthases, or DUS proteins). In humans, dysregulation of DUS proteins has been linked to certain cancers, while in plants such dysregulation has been associated with agricultural traits like stress tolerance. Therefore, understanding where, when, and how DHU is placed on RNAs could unlock critical insights into both human disease and crop resilience.
“The goal of the project,” Dr. Gonzalez Garcia states, “is to understand more about the functional role of DHU modification and the biochemistry of the DUS enzymes that generate it. If we know which RNAs have DHU and can associate that modification with a particular context, like cancer or crop performance, we can use them as potential biomarkers.”
A major barrier to studying DHU has been the lack of tools that can efficiently identify DHU-modified sites within RNAs, but Dr. Gonzalez Garcia says that advanced sequencing technologies and computational infrastructure can be harnessed to overcome these challenges.
“We will be using Nanopore sequencing, which uses changes in electrical current as an RNA molecule travels through a microscopic pore to identify individual bases in the RNA. It is sensitive enough to distinguish modified bases like DHU from unmodified bases.” Once the DHU current signature is determined using synthetic RNA populations, Dr. Gonzalez Garcia can then “teach” a computational model what it looks like and develop a program that can identify it and map it in cellular RNA.
“Although we’re developing this model with Arabidopsis, it will be transferable to all species, including humans. We can even run it on already existing datasets.”
The project incorporates all of the skills that Dr. Gonzalez Garcia has honed over the course of her career. Following her time as a research-focused computational resource administrator, she earned dual PhDs in computer engineering and evolutionary biology from Universidad de los Andes and Université de Montpellier.
“I’m inspired by how nature has the answers to so many questions,” she states, “and driven by the idea of using technology to find those answers.” This theme is pervasive in her career, and while she has historically focused on technology-driven genomics investigations, or the DNA side of things, she is eager to apply her knowledge and skill to the RNA field. As a Pew Latin American Fellow, Dr. Gonzalez Garcia will not only expand her research skill set but also her professional network as she joins a community of early-career Latinx researchers, a network that will support her throughout her career. Following her postdoctoral work, she looks forward to establishing a lab at a Latin American research institution with the financial support from this program, where she will share her knowledge and skills with the broader research community. Such sharing of expertise, supported by the Pew Latin American Fellows program, promotes collaboration and strengthens the scientific community as a whole.
Written by Alyssa Kearly
