Steve L. Bonilla is an Assistant Professor and HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholar at The Rockefeller University, where he leads the Laboratory of RNA Structural Biology and Biophysics. He earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. from Stanford University, then completed postdoctoral training at the University of Colorado. His research combines cryo-EM, biophysics, and computational approaches to understand how RNA folds into functional 3D structures and how those structures shape viral and cellular biology.

Welcome to this exciting seminar!

Alesia Levanova

Researchers and students interested in discussing prospective collaboration with Steve or learning more about his research are welcome to contact Alesia Levanova (alesia.levanova@helsinki.fi) before Sep 4.  

Selected publications

Streit, Lorena V., Takashi Onikubo, Miro A. Astore, Emily A. Cioppa, Paul Dominic B. Olinares, Linas Urnavicius, Danny Incarnato, and Steve L. Bonilla. “RNA 3D Motif Dynamics Guide Assembly of the Replication Initiation Complex in Flaviviruses.” bioRxiv (2026): 2026-06. (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.16.732768v1.full)

Bonilla, Steve L., Madeline E. Sherlock, Andrea MacFadden, and Jeffrey S. Kieft. “A viral RNA hijacks host machinery using dynamic conformational changes of a tRNA-like structure.” Science 374, no. 6570 (2021): 955-960.

Bonilla, Steve L., Quentin Vicens, and Jeffrey S. Kieft. “Cryo-EM reveals an entangled kinetic trap in the folding of a catalytic RNA.” Science Advances 8, no. 34 (2022): eabq4144.

Bonilla, Steve L., and Jeffrey S. Kieft. “The promise of cryo-EM to explore RNA structural dynamics.” Journal of Molecular Biology 434, no. 18 (2022): 167802.

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University of Helsinki students, please note: If you wish to obtain credits from this seminar series, please use your full name in Zoom or sign the participant list in the lecture hall.