Facts
name: ThomasR.Cech
Chicago, IL, USA
Affiliation at the time of the award: University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
Prize motivation: "for their discovery of catalytic properties of RNA."
Prize share: 1/2
中国人 诺贝尔奖Life
Work
Enzymes are substances that speed up the chemical processes in organisms' c
ells without being consumed. It was long thought that all enzymes were proteins. Sidney Altman and Thomas Cech demonstrated that RNA can also function as an enzyme. In 1982, Thomas Cech studied the way RNA molecules from the microorganism Tetrahymena thermophila split into fragments. He discovered that RNA molecules inside a test tube split themselves using a complicated chemical reaction, despite the absence of a protein.
Enzymes are substances that speed up the chemical processes in organisms' cells without being consumed. It was long thought that all enzymes were proteins. Sidney Altman and Thomas Cech demonstrated that RNA can also function as an enzyme. In 1982, Thomas Cech studied the way RNA molecules from the microorganism Tetrahymena thermophila split into fragments. He discovered that RNA molecules inside a test tube split themselves using a complicated chemical reaction, despite the absence of a protein.
发布评论