Melissa Plata knew she wanted to be an Anteater from an early age.
“I first visited UC Irvine during a seventh-grade field trip tour and instantly fell in love with the energy on campus,” she shared.
In the years following the trip, she researched the undergraduate opportunities available at UCI, as well as programs designed to help first-generation students.
“As a first-generation college student, having support systems in place is crucial for me to reach my goals,” said Plata. “I knew I would have this support through several initiatives on campus, such as the Minority Science Program, the Latinx Resource Center, and Student Success Initiatives.”
Plata received a Regents’ Scholarship upon her admission to UCI. While initially unsure of which scientific field she wanted to pursue, she chose to enroll in the UCI School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, noting an appreciation for the interdisciplinary approach of the Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences program.
“I found the pharmaceutical sciences major compelling in its integration of chemistry, biology, and physics concepts to aid in our understanding of how and why medications work — completing a degree program in which a clinical application of these concepts is heavily emphasized resonated with me deeply,” she said.
An undergraduate researcher in the Mobley Lab, Plata contributes to the team’s efforts to “apply computational and theoretical methods to understand and quantitatively predict fundamental biological processes such as protein-ligand binding, solvation, and solubility” and “provide an atomically detailed understanding of these processes at a level of accuracy that can be useful in industrial applications.”
With the support of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) award, which provides resources to student researchers, she has had opportunities to present her work at national conferences. One of her previous projects involved the use of machine learning to predict what structural features of molecules lead to significant changes in solubility in varying temperatures, which can be used to see what medications (specifically chemotherapeutics) are suitable for hyperthermic therapy.
“Currently, I am working on developing a new workflow to benchmark force fields using a solubility data set,” she stated. “Force fields are an important component when running molecular dynamic simulations to visualize how drugs can bind to a target site. My hope for my work is to provide additional insight as to how we can enhance these force fields to improve the accuracy of running these simulations.”
Outside of the lab, Plata serves as a coordinator for the Trauma Research Associates Program (T-RAP). She received the Robert Ernst Prize from the School of Biological Sciences Honors Committee for an Excellence in Research project she conducted with T-RAP.
She also volunteers with the Culinary Medicine Undergraduate Program (CMUP) at the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute Mussallem Nutrition Education Center, supports Chem 51L organic chemistry lab courses as a learning assistant, and helps first-year and transfer students as part of a mentorship program. Plata has been awarded two Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) Research Experience Fellowships for faculty-mentored projects.
In Spring 2025, Plata will graduate with her BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences degree; after, she plans to pursue a PhD and continue her research in computer automated drug design.
“I am excited to contribute to the development and application of computational tools to enhance drug design and development!” she said.
