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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.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Nobel Prize
- The Nobel Prize in Chemistry1989
“for their discovery of catalytic properties of RNA”
Shared · 1/2 portion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Thomas
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Chicago
- Occupation
- university teacher
- Employer
- University of Colorado Boulder
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Academic degree
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Field of work
- biochemistry
- Official website
- experts.colorado.edu/display/fisid_103252
- Image
- Thomas Cech HD2007 Othmer Gold Medal portrait2.JPG
Show 6 more facts
- Commons category
- Thomas Robert Cech
- date of birth
- 1947-12-08
- member of
- Academia Europaea
- Erdős number
- 4
- name in native language
- Thomas Cech
- interested in
- biochemistry
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
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.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Thomas Cech” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.