Dr. Grigory Filonov is a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Pharmacology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He received a Ph.D. from the School of Chemistry of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. Dr. Filonov conducted his first postdoctoral training at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University where he engineered fluorescent proteins that can be used to visualize processes in live animals. Dr. Filonov then joined the laboratory of Dr. Jaffrey at Weill Cornell Medical College. Here Dr. Filonov is working on expanding the RNA mimics of fluorescent proteins technology. In particular, Dr. Filonov focuses on developing novel high-throughput screening approaches to isolate RNA-based fluorescent probes that have different spectral and photophysical properties. Additionally, Dr. Filonov is addressing the problem of robust expression of functional synthetic RNAs in live cells and organisms.

Dr. Samie Jaffrey is a Professor of Pharmacology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He received an M.D. and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he also conducted postdoctoral work. Dr. Jaffrey's laboratory focuses on identifying novel RNA regulatory pathways the control protein expression in normal cellular function and in disease processes. His research uses novel imaging, sequencing, microfluidic, and chemical biology approaches to address these questions. Dr. Jaffrey's laboratory developed a novel class of RNAs referred to as RNA mimics of green fluorescent protein, which are used to image RNA localization and monitor RNA processing in living cells. The Jaffrey laboratory extended this technology to create a new class of genetically encoded biosensors composed of RNA that allows signaling molecules to be imaged in living cells.