Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley, 1992. NSF Postdoctoral Chemistry Fellowship, 1993-95. NIH National Research Service Award, University of Colorado, 1995-96. These RNA molecules act as a functional product in their own right, without coding any protein. Because they can fold into unique shapes with distinct structural features, some of these RNAs recognize specific proteins or small molecules, whereas others catalyze particular chemical reactions.
Additional information is available at our lab web site.
A fundamental quest of modern biochemistry is to understand how enzymes work and to embellish them with new properties. Recent work with enzymatically active nucleic acids shows that they have a catalytic potential rivaling that of proteins, but there is much that remains poorly understood. The state of the art in this field is to define the range of reactivities that can be expected from ribozymes, the mechanisms by which they function, and their capacity to participate in biology. We are isolating ribozymes and deoxyribozymes for several biologically relevant reactions. Some of these ribozymes will be used to replace essential protein enzymes inside cells.