Ethan Ricardo Mandojana ’27 awarded Princeton Research Day Undergraduate International Research Award

Molecular biology major Ethan Ricardo Mandojana ’27 was awarded the Princeton Research Day Undergraduate International Research Award. The prize is sponsored by the Office of International Programs and recognizes the researcher whose project best demonstrates the importance of international engagement and on-site research.

Last summer, Mandojana conducted research in collaboration with the University of Sydney School of Medical Sciences through the Streicker International Fellows Program. His project focused on tracking the evolution of viruses infecting Australian wildlife, including investigating the cause of death of a gecko at an animal rehabilitation center in New South Wales. Using RNA sequencing, Mandojana identified a virus sharing about one third of its genetic code with XSV, a small, lethal RNA virus of unknown origin which kills nearly all giant freshwater prawns it infects, leaving a devastating impact on aquaculture across the Indo Pacific.

The discovery is the first known relative of XSV and the first virus in its family found in a vertebrate and outside an aquatic environment. This led to the discovery of nine new XSV related viruses—found in geckos, sea sponges, seal feces, and water samples—and allowed the team to map their evolutionary relationships. Despite screening samples and databases from around the world, all newly discovered viruses were found in New South Wales.

The findings reveal that this virus family is far more diverse than previously known and may be moving between multiple species in New South Wales. This work was mentored by Professor Edward C. Holmes and Dr. Kate van Brussel and will soon be published with Mandojana as first author.

Mandojana's international experience has also included interning with the Czech Academy of Sciences in Nové Hrady, Czechia through the International Internship Program.

On campus, Mandojana is an undergraduate researcher in the te Velthuis Lab where his research focuses on creating a system for blue light-dependent control of influenza activity. This summer, Mandojana will conduct HIV-1 research at the Rockefeller University in New York City as a Chemers Neustein Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow in the laboratory of Professor Paul Bieniasz.

View all the award winners from Princeton Research Day by visiting the Princeton Research Day website.