Thomas R. Cech was born on December 8, 1947 in Chicago. In 1966, he entered Grinnell College where he obtained a B.A. in ' In 1975, Cech completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley and in the same year, he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge where he engaged in postdoctoral research. In 1978, he obtained his first faculty position at the University of Colorado where he lectured undergraduate students in chemistry and biochemistry. December 8 is the 342nd day (343rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Grinnell College Grinnell College is a highly selective, four-year undergraduate liberal arts college located in Grinnell, Iowa. ... University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (also known as Cal, UCB, UC Berkeley, The University of California, California, or simply Berkeley) is a public coeducational university situated east of the San Francisco Bay in Berkeley, California, overlooking the Golden Gate. ... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, is a research and educational institution located in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. MIT is a widely renowned leader in science and technology, as well as in many other fields, including management, economics, linguistics, political science, and philosophy. ... The University of Colorado (CU) System consists of five campuses: University of Colorado at Boulder University of Colorado at Colorado Springs University of Colorado at Denver University of Colorado Health Sciences Center Fitzsimons campus of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, scheduled to open in 2007 in Aurora, Colorado...

Research Areas

Thomas Cech's main research area is that of the process of transcription in the nucleus of cells. He studies how the genetic code of DNA is transcribed into RNA. In the 1970s, Dr. Cech had been studying the splicing of RNA in the unicellular organism Tetrahymena thermophilia when he discovered that an unprocessed RNA molecule could splice itself. In 1982, Dr. Cech became the first to show that RNA molecules are not restricted to being passive carriers of genetic information - they can have catalytic functions and can participate in cellular reactions. RNA-processing reactions and protein synthesis on ribosomes in particular are catalysed by RNA. RNA enzymes are known as ribozymes and have provided a new tool for gene technology. They also have the potential to provide new therapeutic agents - for example, they have the ability to destroy and cleave invading, viral RNAs. Transcription may be one of the following: In linguistics, transcription is the conversion of spoken words into written language. ... RNA codons. ... Space-filling model of a section of DNA molecule Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions specifying the biological development of all cellular forms of life (and most viruses). ... Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a nucleic acid polymer consisting of covalently bound nucleotides. ... In genetics, splicing is a modification of genetic information prior to translation. ... In chemistry and biology, catalysis (in Greek meaning to annul) is the acceleration of the rate of a chemical reaction by means of a substance, called a catalyst, that is itself unchanged chemically by the overall reaction. ... Figure 1: Ribosome structure indicating small subunit (A) and large subunit (B). ... Ribbon diagram of the catalytically perfect enzyme TIM. An enzyme is a protein that catalyzes, or speeds up, a chemical reaction. ... A ribozyme, or RNA enzyme, is an RNA molecule that can catalyze a chemical reaction. ...

Thomas Cech has a second, very different area of research - that of the structure and function of telomeres, the natural ends of linear chromosomes. He and his research group focus on the assembly, structure and function of telomerase, the enzyme that copies the telomeric sequences. The active site protein subunits of telomerase comprise a new class of reverse transcriptases, enzymes previously thought to be restricted to viruses and transposable elements. Telomerase is an important enzyme in biomedical terms due to the fact that it is activated in 90% of human cancers. Therefore, a drug that would inhibit its activity is much sought after as a cancer chemotherapeutic. A telomere is a region of highly repetitive DNA at the end of a chromosome, which functions as an aglet. ... This article is about the biological chromosome. ... // Introduction Telomerase is an enzyme, discovered by Elizabeth Helen Blackburn and Carol Greider, that adds specific DNA sequence repeats, (TTAGGG in all vertebrates) to the 3 (three prime) end of DNA strands, in the telomere regions at the ends of chromosomes. ... In biochemistry, reverse transcriptase (EC 2. ... When normal cells are damaged beyond repair, they are eliminated by apoptosis. ...

Awards

Dr. Cech's work has been recognised by many awards and prizes including: lifetime Professorship by the American Cancer Society (1987), the Heineken Prize of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (1988), the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (1988), the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1989) and the National Medal of Science (1995). In 1987, Dr. Cech was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences and in 1988 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2000, Dr Cech succeeded Purnell Choppin as president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He continues to head his world-renowned biochemistry laboratory in the University of Colorado, Boulder. The American Cancer Society is a charitable organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. ... This is a list of Nobel Prize laureates in Chemistry from 1901 to the present day. ... National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science, also called the Presidential Medal of Science, is an honor given by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social... The House of the Academy, Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is a United States non-profit medical research institute based in Chevy Chase, Maryland and originally founded by the aviator and engineer Howard Hughes in 1953. ...

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