New Biology Seminar
| Date/Time: | Wednesday, 14 Apr 2010 at 10:00 am |
|---|---|
| Location: | Gallery, Memorial Union |
| Cost: | Free |
| URL: | http://www.ciag.iastate.edu |
| Phone: | 515-294-2570 |
| Channel: | College of Agriculture and Life Sciences |
| Categories: | Lectures |
| Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
Cech currently directs the Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology after serving nearly a decade as President of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Of the many honors Cech has received, the most recognizable is the Nobel Prize in Chemistry which he received along with Sidney Altman at Yale University in 1989 for their independent discovery of the ability of RNA to function as an enzyme, not just an intermediary between DNA and protein.
Born in Chicago Illinois, Cech holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Grinnell College in Iowa and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. He became a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator in 1988.
Cech will describe the events that led to the discovery of the first catalytic RNA, or ribozyme. The finding that RNA could be a biocatalyst fueled speculation about a primordial RNA World, where RNA replicated itself. How, then, would life evolve beyond RNA to encompass proteins and eventually DNA? He will discuss more recent work on the ribonucleoprotein (RNP) enzyme, telomerase that may provide clues about how life "crawled out" of the RNA world to the present situation, where catalysis is carried out mostly by protein enzymes but also by RNP enzymes.