Hannah Barsouk is a first-year doctoral student in biochemistry and a chemical-biology interface trainee at Stanford University, where they aim to develop RNA-based technologies to enable programmable control of biological systems and define how regulatory networks become disrupted in disease.
In 2025, Barsouk graduated from Yale University with joint bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biophysics and biochemistry. In the laboratory of Ronald Breaker, they led projects uncovering novel functions for bacterial noncoding RNAs in metabolite sensing and stress response. In first-author work, they implicated a large RNA of unknown function as a key player in metal ion homeostasis and protein translation. Employing a series of RNA sensors, they further demonstrated that disrupting metal ion levels predictably alter bacterial susceptibility to certain ribosome-targeting antibiotics, suggesting novel strategies for combating multidrug-resistant bacteria. For this work, they were awarded the Paul Sigler memorial prize for an outstanding graduating senior in biochemistry. Barsouk is also a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar and a Joan and Tom Steitz RNA Fellow.
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Barsouk began research in high school through an NSF-funded public school outreach scholarship at the University of Pittsburgh. Spending three years studying protein trafficking in the laboratory of Allyson O’Donnell, they were selected in 2021 as a Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar.
Barsouk is committed to teaching and outreach, having served as a public school intern with New Haven Public Schools and as head undergraduate teaching assistant for four semesters of biochemistry. In their free time, Barsouk enjoys skateboarding and reading science history nonfiction.
