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Thomas Cech
Sign in to saveAlso known as Thomas Robert Cech, Thomas R. Cech
American chemist, biochemistry professor
Thomas Cech is an American biochemistry professor and chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering that RNA molecules can act as catalysts to speed up chemical reactions, a finding that challenged the previous understanding that only proteins could perform this function. His discovery was significant because it revealed new possibilities for how life's molecules might function and opened up new research directions in biochemistry and molecular biology.
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Person · Open Library
- Works
- 1
Top works
- Abstracts of papers presented at the 1987 meeting on RNA processing
via Open Library + Wikidata
Music · MusicBrainz
- Type
- Person
- Gender
- Male
- Origin
- California
Discography
- Hi-Fi Dreams2012
- Windows2020
- Around the Globe2023
- Vibrations In Color2023
- The Bird's Eye View2023
- Liquid Sunshine2024
- Working Late2024
- Early Spring2024
- Sounds Fresh2024
- The Beat Bodega2025
via MusicBrainz · CC0
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- Analysis of Relative Gene Expression Data Using Real-Time Quantitative PCR and the 2−ΔΔCT Method
· 2001 · cited 160,872x
- The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews
· 2021 · cited 77,621x
- U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation
· 2015 · cited 57,616x
- STAR: ultrafast universal RNA-seq aligner
· 2012 · cited 49,745x
- UCSF Chimera—A visualization system for exploratory research and analysis
· 2004 · cited 43,780x
via Crossref · CC0
Wikidata facts
- Official website
- experts.colorado.edu/display/fisid_103252
- Image
- Thomas Cech HD2007 Othmer Gold Medal portrait2.JPG
Show 4 more facts
- Commons category
- Thomas Robert Cech
- date of birth
- 1947-12-08
- Erdős number
- 4
- name in native language
- Thomas Cech
via Wikidata · CC0
~7 min read
Article
Thomas Robert Cech (born 8 December 1947) is an American chemist who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Sidney Altman for their discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA.
Cech discovered that RNA could itself cut strands of RNA, suggesting that life might have started as RNA. He found that RNA can not only transmit instructions, but can act as a catalyst to speed up the necessary reactions.