Campus Directory

Pronouns she/her

Division Physical & Biological Sciences Division

Department/College/Unit Molecular, Cell, & Developmental Biology Department

Title Assistant Professor

Affiliation Faculty

Other UCSC Campus Affiliation Global & Community Health
Chemistry & Biochemistry Department

Faculty Type Regular Faculty

Web Site

Primary Office Location Sinsheimer Laboratories
451

Additional Location(s) 419

Mail Stop MCD Biology

Biography, Education and Training

B.S. in Chemistry and B.S. in German, Pennsylvania State University, 2014

PhD in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Breaker Lab, Yale University, 2018

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Kieft Lab, University of Colorado Medical Campus, 2018-2023

Scientist, Kieft Lab, New York Structural Biology Center, 2023-2025

Research Interests

RNA structure, viral RNAs, translation regulation

Selected Publications

 ME Sherlock, KE Segar, JS Kieft (2025) “A compact viral IRES translates a downstream open reading frame” bioRxiv preprint

ME Sherlock, CJ Langeberg, KE Segar, JS Kieft (2025) “A conserved class of viral RNA structures regulate translation reinitiation through dynamic ribosome interactions” Cell Reports 44, 115236.

ME Sherlock, L Baquero Galvis, Q Vicens, JS Kieft, S Jagannathan (2023) “Principles, mechanisms, and biological implications of translation termination–reinitiation” RNA 29, 865-884. [Review article]

S Bonilla, ME Sherlock, A MacFadden, JS Kieft (2021) “A viral RNA hijacks host machinery using dynamic conformational changes of a tRNA-like structure” Science 374, 955-960.

ME Sherlock, EW Hartwick, A MacFadden, JS Kieft (2021) “Structural diversity and phylogenetic distribution of valyl tRNA-like structures in viruses” RNA 27, 27-39.

ME Sherlock, N Sudarsan, RR Breaker (2018) "Riboswitches for the alarmone ppGpp expand the collection of RNA-based signaling systems" Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 115, 6052-6057.

ME Sherlock, N Sudarsan, S Stav, RR Breaker (2018) “Tandem riboswitches form a natural Boolean logic gate to control purine metabolism in bacteria” eLife 7, e33908.

ME Sherlock, SN Malkowski, RR Breaker (2017) “Biochemical validation of a second guanidine riboswitch class in bacteria” Biochemistry 56, 352-358.

ME Sherlock, CA Rumble, CK Kwok, J Breffke, M Maroncelli, PC Bevilacqua (2016) “Steady-state and time-resolved studies into the origin of the intrinsic fluorescence of G-quadruplexes” J. Phys. Chem. B 120, 5146–5158.

CK Kwok, ME Sherlock, PC Bevilacqua (2013) “Effect of loop sequence and loop length on the intrinsic fluorescence of G-quadruplexes” Biochemistry 52, 3019–3021.