While much effort has been focused in the past decade on understanding DNA and transcription, relatively less is known about gene regulation at the RNA level. RNA information is encoded in both its sequence and structure. RNA can fold into specific, and dynamic structures, to interact with cellular factors including proteins, nucleotides and metabolites for gene regulation. This structural malleability of RNA can be precisely controlled by microorganisms to enable RNA to act as molecular sensors and genetic regulators under different environmental conditions. Inhibiting the ability of RNA to sense and respond to important cellular signals can impact a microorganism’s capacity to adapt to its changing environment and diminish its ability to survive. As such, Dr. Yue Wan intends to use high throughput structural and genomics approaches to identify and characterize these functional RNA regulatory units in pathogenic microorganisms. This will potentially broaden our repertoire of drug targets and facilitate future drug development.