Researcher

Thomas Cech

Profile

Thomas Cech is an American biochemist at the University of Colorado Boulder and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Sidney Altman for the discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA—the demonstration that RNA can act as a biological catalyst (ribozyme). Cech discovered that the intron of Tetrahymena rRNA could catalyze its own splicing in the complete absence of protein, overturning the dogma that only proteins could serve as enzymes. This discovery resolved the chicken-and-egg problem of the origin of life (RNA world hypothesis) and revealed that RNA has functions far beyond information storage. Cech's subsequent research has focused on telomeres and telomerase—the ribonucleoprotein enzyme that maintains chromosome ends. Understanding telomerase is crucial in cancer (where it is aberrantly reactivated) and aging (where progressive telomere shortening limits cell division). Telomerase inhibitors and activators are active areas of pharmaceutical development. Cech also served as President of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and has been a major funder of biomedical research. Science buyers in aging biology, oncology, and RNA therapeutics follow his laboratory.

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