Photo: Hallie Leo
Alejandro Félix Mejía, a PhD candidate in the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences’ Interdisciplinary Program, has received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The funding will support the UMass Chan Medical School student’s work on mRNA therapeutics research.
“I like testing new ideas, trying to make RNA molecules better by playing with their sequence and testing different versions to tackle a problem,” he said. “I love research and sharing with others how this is a fun and rewarding career.”
Félix Mej́ia works on messenger RNA (mRNA) therapies in the lab of Li Li, PhD, assistant professor of RNA therapeutics, combining two different technologies in the mRNA therapeutics field and trying to enhance the platform to make mRNA molecules more stable once they've been delivered.
“This is a critical step in turning mRNA therapies into more than just vaccines, instead encoding therapeutic proteins to treat potential diseases,” Félix Mej́ia said. “In order for this to work, current mRNA therapies need to remain in our cells for longer amounts of time so patients only need to receive one monthly instead of every few days. We believe this timeframe is what’s holding back mRNA therapies from widespread use.”
"The COVID-19 vaccine demonstrates the power of mRNA as a new class of drugs,” said Dr. Li. “The use of chemically modified nucleotides is crucial for the clinical success of mRNA vaccines. But how these modified nucleotides affect RNA’s structure and function, especially when they’re uniformly introduced to an RNA, is not well understood. Alejandro’s work will provide us with some very important clues to this question and can lead to more effective mRNA drugs in the future."
Félix Mej́ia grew up in Mexico City and moved to the U.S. to study biochemistry at Arizona State University.
“Alejandro is simply brilliant,” Li said. “He made all the important discoveries himself and has an exceptional talent for getting to the bottom of things.”
Félix Mejía and his lab mates enjoyed a small celebration after learning about the funding, ordering takeout and spending time together.
“I'm very grateful for the amazing team at the RNA Therapeutics Institute that helps us apply to fellowships, because they made the process much easier,” said Félix Mejía. “In theory, this opens up funding for more students to join our lab or to hire another technician to test more of our experimental ideas.”
When not in the lab, Félix Mejía can be found reading science fiction books, riding his bicycle to work or just hanging out “outside in the world.” He plans to work in a research environment after completing his PhD.
