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Faculty

Michael Mohsen

Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry

PhD in Chemistry, Stanford UniversityBS in Chemistry, New York University

https://sites.google.com/view/mohsenlab/

Description

Michael Mohsen is an Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at LIU Pharmacy. Michael's research interests are focused on RNA-small molecule therapeutics, employing approaches from RNA targeting and RNA engineering. Michael's research is interdisciplinary and draws from the fields of medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, biochemistry, synthetic biology, and drug discovery. Before joining LIU, Michael was a Life Sciences Research Foundation and PhRMA Foundation postdoctoral fellow with Ron Breaker at Yale, where his work focused on RNA engineering through rational design and directed evolution to develop RNA devices that respond to small molecule drugs. Michael received his PhD in Chemistry in 2020 from Stanford, where he worked with Eric Kool to design, synthesize, and explore applications of novel dinucleotide polyphosphate compounds. Michael received his BS in Chemistry in 2015 from NYU, where he got his start in DNA nanotechnology research with the late Ned Seeman.

Specialties

Medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, biochemistry, synthetic biology, nucleic acids

Publications

  • K Kavita, A Narunsky, JJ Mohsen, I Mahadeshwar, MG Mohsen, YS Chang, RR Breaker. Guanidine aptamers are present in vertebrate RNAs associated with calcium signaling and neuromuscular function. Nat. Commun. 2025, 16, 7362. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62815-6
  • B Mateo-Victoriano, GJ Samaranayake, S Pokharel, GJ Sahayanathan, C Jayaraj, CI Troccoli, DC Watson, MG Mohsen, Y Guo, ET Kool, P Rai. Oncogenic KRAS Addiction States Differentially Influence MTH1 Expression and 8-oxodGTPase Activity in Lung Adenocarcinoma. Redox Biol. 2025, 82, 103610. DOI: 10.1016/j.redox.2025.103610
  • JJ Mohsen, MG Mohsen, K Jiang, A Landajuela, L Quinto, FJ Isaacs, E Karatekin, SA Slavoff. Cellular function of the GndA microprotein during heat shock. bioRxiv 2025. DOI: 10.1101/2024.06.29.601336
  • MG Mohsen, MK Midy, A Balaji, RR Breaker. Engineered Branaplam Aptamers Exploit Structural Elements from Natural Riboswitches. ACS Chem. Biol. 2024, 19, 1447-1452. DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.4c00358
  • L Fang, WA Velema, Y Lee, L Xiao, MG Mohsen, AM Kietrys, ET Kool. Pervasive transcriptome interactions of protein-targeted drugs. Nat. Chem. 2023, 15, 1374-1383.DOI: 10.1038/s41557-023-01309-8
  • MG Mohsen, RR Breaker. In vitro Selection and in vivo Testing of Riboswitch-inspired Aptamers. Bio. Protoc. 2023, 13. DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.4775
  • MG Mohsen, MK Midy, A Balaji, RR Breaker. Exploiting natural riboswitches for aptamer engineering and validation. Nucleic Acids Res. 2023, 51, 966-981. DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkac1218
  • Y Lee, Y Onishi, LA McPherson, AM Kietrys, M Hebenbrock, YW Jun, I Das, S Adimoolam, D Ji, MG Mohsen, JM Ford, ET Kool. Enhancing Repair of Oxidative DNA Damage with Small Molecule Activators of MTH1. ACS Chem. Biol. 2022, 17, 2074-2087. DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.2c00038
  • LA McPherson, CI Troccoli, D Ji, AE Bowles, ML Gardiner, MG Mohsen, NS Nagathihalli, DM Nguyen, DJ Robbins, NB Merchant, ET Kool, P Rai, JM Ford. Increased MTH1-specific 8-oxodGTPase activity is a hallmark of cancer in colon, lung and pancreatic tissue. DNA Repair (Amst). 2019, 83, 102644. DOI: 10.1016/j.dnarep.2019.102644
  • MG Mohsen, D Ji, ET Kool. Polymerase synthesis of four-base DNA from two stable dimeric nucleotides. Nucleic Acids Res. 2019, 47, 9495-9501. DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkz741
  • YP Ohayon, C Hernandez, AR Chandrasekaran, X Wang, HO Abdallah, MA Jong, MG Mohsen, R Sha, JJ Birktoft, PS Lukeman, PM Chaikin, SL Ginell, C Mao, NC Seeman. Designing Higher Resolution Self-Assembled 3D DNA Crystals via Strand Terminus Modifications. ACS Nano 2019, 13, 7957-7965. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.9b02430
  • MG Mohsen, D Ji, ET Kool. Polymerase-amplified release of ATP (POLARA) for detecting single nucleotide variants in RNA and DNA. Chem. Sci. 2019, 10, 3264-3270. DOI: 10.1039/C8SC03901A
  • MG Mohsen, ET Kool. The Discovery of Rolling Circle Amplification and Rolling Circle Transcription. Acc. Chem. Res. 2016, 49, 2540-2550. DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.6b00417
  • K Oertell, EM Harcourt, MG Mohsen, J Petruska, ET Kool, MF Goodman. Kinetic selection vs. free energy of DNA base pairing in control of polymerase fidelity. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2016, 113, E2277-E2285. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1600279113
  • D Ji, MG Mohsen, EM Harcourt, ET Kool. ATP-Releasing Nucleotides: Linking DNA Synthesis to Luciferase Signaling. Angew. Chem. Intl. Ed. Engl. 2016, 55, 2087-2091. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201509131

Book Chapters

  • MG Mohsen, RR Breaker. Prospects for Riboswitches in Drug Development. In RNA as a Drug Target: The Next Frontier for Medicinal Chemistry, Methods and Principles in Medicinal Chemistry 2024, 203-226. DOI: 10.1002/9783527840458.ch8



Lectures and Presentations

  • Engineered drug-responsive RNA devices inspired by natural riboswitches. New York Academy of Sciences Chemical Biology of Nucleic Acids Meeting. New York, NY. Jan 14, 2025.

Honors/Awards

  • 2025 CAS Future Leaders Top 100 program
  • 2022 Life Sciences Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (HHMI Fellow)
  • 2022 PhRMA Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Drug Discovery
  • 2020 VPGE Academic Achievement Award for the Markaz (Stanford University)
  • 2019 Edward Curtis Franklin Award (Stanford Chemistry)
  • 2014 Departmental Scholar Award (NYU Chemistry)

Patents

  • ET Kool, MG Mohsen. Methods for detecting viral RNA using ATP-releasing nucleotides. 2022, publication numbers: WO2022115435, US20230416849
  • ET Kool, D Ji, MG Mohsen. Amplified isothermal detection of polynucleotides with ATP release. 2017, publication number: US20170159112