Aye is a Professor of Chemistry & Chemical Biology at Oxford University (Department of Chemistry). She completed her undergraduate studies in chemistry at the University of Oxford UK (2000-2004), and doctoral research in organic chemistry with Prof. Dave Evans at Harvard (2004-2009). She then switched her research discipline to life science and received her postdoctoral training with Prof. JoAnne Stubbe at MIT (2009-2012).
Science in the Aye lab, established in mid-2012, seeks to understand non-canonical cell signalling processes. Her laboratory is most well-known for investigations into ‘electrophile signalling’, a nuanced communication mode whereby on-target engagement between specific reactive small-molecule metabolites and target proteins, orchestrates precision responses at cellular and whole-organismal levels, and how these individual events are remodelled in disease states. Aye also studies nucleotide signalling in the context of genome maintenance.
Contributions from her laboratory have been recognized by several international honours; recent examples include: 2025 ERC Advanced Grant; 2024 Klaus Grohe Prize in Drug Discovery, Academy of Medical Sciences Professorship, and Wolfson Fellowship from the Royal Society; 2022 ERC Consolidator Grant, Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award; 2021 International Chemical Biology Society Global Lectureship Award for Distinguished Investigators in Chemical Biology, and the American Chemical Society (ACS) Arthur Cope Scholar Award; and 2020 ACS Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry.