Medicinal Chemistry Collaborative

Gabrielle P. Dailey is a National Institutes of Health T32 funded PhD student currently working in the Taylor laboratory. She comes to us with a B.S. in Biochemistry from NC State, where she did undergraduate research for 3 years on characterizing the interaction between natural peptides and geminiviral replication machinery in plants. The Taylor group is studying the relationship between viral infection and dietary selenium, and Gabby’s research is focused on the Zika virus, an RNA based virus spread by mosquitos. There are currently gaps in the scientific knowledge surrounding how Zika viral infection leads to the onset of a congenital microcephaly in newborns whose mothers were infected with the virus. Gabby is investigating how this phenomenon occurs, specifically focusing on viral genomic RNA interactions with host cell mRNAs that code for the expression of both selenoproteins, Selenoprotein P (SePP1) and Thioredoxin reductase 1 (TR1). Gabby has taken on leadership and mentorship roles, receiving the Teaching Assistant of the Year Award in 2018, and has used her scientific communication skills to win first prize in a recent campus wide 3-minute thesis competition.