Alicia is a postgraduate researcher (PhD) in the Department of Chemistry, under the supervision of Dr Alex Taylor, working on the development of catalytic nucleic acids for mRNA knockdown. Prior to this, Alicia obtained her Diploma of Collegiate Studies in Analytical Chemistry Laboratory Technologies (2018) from Ahuntsic College, a BSc in Pharmaceutical Chemistry (2021) from the Université de Sherbrooke, as well as a MSc in Chemical Biology (2024) from McGill University working on the development of antisense oligonucleotide therapeutics for the gene therapy of neuromuscular diseases. That’s where she found her interest in oligonucleotide therapeutics and chemically modified nucleic acids, or Xeno-Nucleic Acids (XNAs), leading to her joining King's Department of Chemistry in 2024.

Alicia is also on the board of the King’s Doctoral Student’ Association (KDSA) as a PR Coordinator as well as being a NMES Outreach Student Ambassador. She is also a member of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutic Society (OTS) and the International Society for Nucleosides, Nucleotides, and Nucleic acids (IS3NA)

 Thesis Title:

Toward platforms for rapid allele-specific knockdown of disease-associated RNA: evolution of RNA-cleaving XNAzymes with improved biostability and catalysis.

Research Interests: 

• Therapeutic and diagnostic oligonucleotides
• Chemically modified oligonucleotides, Xeno-Nucleic Acids (XNA)
• Cell-free directed evolution
• Gene therapy and molecular medicine

Her current research focuses on developing and using new chemical evolution methods for the selection of XNA based catalysts, with sugar and base chemical modifications, capable of ultra-specific RNA detection and knockdown.

PhD Supervisors: 

Primary: Dr Alex Taylor

Secondary: Dr Saidul Islam