Dr. Thomas Cech, Nobel Laureate, in an interview with CNN, provides insight into how RNA has impacted modern medicine and biology and how mRNA, holds promise for future vaccines and other scientific and health-related breakthroughs. For many years, Cech has researched RNA and taught chemistry to undergrads at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
“We saw that with the mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccines that it can be a good messenger,” says Cech. “But it can do so much more than just act as a message.”
Cech would know. In 1989, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside Sidney Altman for their discovery that RNA “is not only a molecule of heredity, but also can function as a biocatalyst,” or enzyme — basically a kind of spark that can facilitate a chemical reaction.
Now, he’s released a book titled “The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life’s Deepest Secrets” to share his knowledge — and what it could mean for the future — with everyone.
Read More in the CNN Interview
Cech also recently posted a guest essay opinion in the New York Times titled "The Long-Overlooked Molecule That Will Define a Generation of Science".