Gabriel Alejandro Romero Agosto

Harvard BBS stood out for the sheer number of faculty and labs to choose from when looking for rotations. As an umbrella program, it let me rotate across different fields of biology, which proved essential later for building collaborations and assembling my dissertation committee. Boston is also a great place to be outside of research, with a nice mix of outdoor and nightlife activities!

I study viral RNA structures and their functional relevance to the virus life cycle. My thesis focuses on coronaviruses, specifically how they use diverse RNA structures to regulate programmed ribosomal frameshifting, a mechanism that, better understood, could guide the development of broad-acting coronavirus antivirals.