Anna Marie Pyle

Dr. Anna Marie Pyle is the William Edward Gilbert Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Professor of Chemistry at Yale University. She has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator since 1997. Dr. Pyle obtained her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Princeton University and received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Columbia University in 1990. During her graduate work with Professor Jacqueline K. Barton, Dr. Pyle developed transition-metal complexes for recognizing DNA microstructures and initiating site-specific redox chemistry. Dr. Pyle was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Thomas Cech, where she began her studies on molecular recognition of RNA. Specifically, she investigated the role of 2’-hydroxyl groups in the stabilization of RNA tertiary structure. Dr. Pyle formed her own research group in 1992 in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University Medical Center. In 2002, she moved to Yale University, where she leads a research group that specializes in structure and function of large RNA molecules and RNA remodeling enzymes. The Pyle laboratory uses a diverse set of biochemical and biophysical techniques, including crystallography and chemical probing, to understand the structural complexity of RNA architecture. Pyle pioneered the study of RNA helicase enzymes and other RNA-stimulated ATPases that serve as translocases, RNA remodeling enzymes, folding cofactors and signaling enzymes in the cell. Her experimental work is complemented by efforts to develop new computational tools for modeling, analyzing and predicting RNA structure. Pyle has received numerous awards for her work including the J. Malcom Miller Teaching Award, the Pegram Award, a Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund Fellowship, the Irma T. Hirschl and Monique Weill-Caulier Career Scientist Award, a Beckman Young Investigator Award, and the New York City Mayor’s Award for Excellence. She is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in addition to her American Academy of Arts and Sciences membership and is the author of over 150 publications, with her work appearing in Cell, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of American, Science, and other notable journals.