Thomas Cech
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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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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.
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1947 birthsAmerican biochemistsAmerican Nobel laureatesAmerican people of Czech descentFellows of the AACR AcademyFellows of the American Academy of MicrobiologyGrinnell College alumniHoward Hughes Medical InvestigatorsLiving peopleMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyMembers of the European Molecular Biology OrganizationMembers of the National Academy of Medicine