Congratulations Dr. Dorinova!

Since 2021, Evgeniia has been pursuing her PhD in the Höbartner group at the University of Würzburg, supported by a Bayhost Fellowship. Her research focuses on the in vitro selection of novel modified ribozymes. She holds a first-class honors degree in Organic and Medicinal Chemistry from the Lomonosov Institute of Fine Chemical Technologies, Moscow (2020), and gained research experience at the Engelhard Institute of Molecular Biology, RAS, where she worked on the development of an enzymatic method for the synthesis of biologically important nucleosides. 

During her PhD, she discovered the first ribozyme that catalyzes the direct alkylation of an exocyclic amino group of a nucleobase, specifically the N4 amino group of cytidine. The new ribozyme is called CSAR (cytidine specific alkyltransferase ribozyme), and was just recently reported in Angewandte Chemie. CSAR opens a completely new chapter of RNA-modifying ribozymes, since the earlier reported alkyltransferase ribozymes, like MTR1 and SAMURI, modify nucleosides at endocyclic nitrogen atoms and produce positively charged nucleobases. Evgeniia will continue her research in the field of in vitro selection and ribozyme engineering as a postdoc in the Höbartner Lab and contribute to the collaborative research project TRR 319: RNA Modification and Processing.