Noah Peña, Ph.D.
Dr. Peña joined the Simon lab in 2024, after earning his Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Chicago. Noah’s research interests involve using RNA sequencing to dissect the heterogenicity of RNA virus populations in acute and chronic infection settings as well as studying HIV proviruses and transcriptomes of productive and nonproductive infected cells. His other research interests include tRNA, RNA modifications, and RNA epigenetic regulation. In the future, Dr. Peña plans to expand his clinical research experience and to acquire a position in industry and/or academia as an expert in RNA viruses.
In his free time, Noah enjoys playing Dungeon and Dragons and trying to find the best panaderia in NYC, recommendations welcomed!
Simon Lab Spotlight! Dr. Noah Peña
Dr. Noah Peña, Postdoctoral Fellow, from Donna, Texas
Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Chicago
Q: Cats or Dogs or Other?
A. I am a Cat person, they’re too cute.
Q. What sparked your interest in virology research or led you to join the Simon and Mulder Lab?
A. In graduate school, I did RNA biology research and learned about chemical modifications. Through this, I also learned about how RNA biology impacts infectious diseases. This started my interest in virology.
Q. What is the most interesting part of your job?
A. I think it must be the machine learning technology we are looking into using to help with our data analysis, specifically on looking at HIV proviruses integrity in productive and non-productive by leveraging publicly available datasets.
Q. What is your favorite spot in all of New York?
A. If I can't say my apartment, I would have to say the Met!
Q. How did the Pandemic impact your position on research and virology?
A. My position changed a lot when the pandemic first hit. I was doing my first project in graduate school, which included purifying a protein called YTHDC1, an m6A reader protein. When the pandemic hit, I wasn't allowed to be in the lab and so I switched over to another interest of mine which was Computational Biology and Computer Bioinformatics. It's why I now primarily work on that side of research in the lab.
Q. What does a day in the lab look like?
A. It really differs day to day – it starts with a huddle in the morning and then from there I am at my desk for most of the day working on different projects that I have.
Q. Aside from being a great postdoctoral fellow, what would you describe as your personal superpower?
A. I am very creative in certain aspects – I think about a problem and see how to fix it in many different ways. Sometimes too many, but I’m working on learning how to limit my thought process to the top three relatively good ideas.
Q. If you could share one piece of advice with people interested in research, what would it be?
A. I would say not to be scared – identify what your interests are and find out what you enjoy doing most.
Thank you Noah for sharing your story and also Aidan Vera for helping with the Spotlight Series!