RNA clubs
- Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3290, USA
- Corresponding author: weeks{at}unc.edu
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
When I started graduate school in 1987, my knowledge of RNA was probably typical of that of most chemistry graduate students, meaning it was pretty minimal. I took my first (and only) biochemistry class in Germany, at a time when my German was just barely up to the challenge. RNA was hardly mentioned, but I do recall learning that one of the activities of the ribosome was “peptidyl transferase.” As I was thinking about starting my PhD project, I was intrigued by my advisor's very general suggestion that “maybe it was time to work on RNA again.” My advisor, Don Crothers, had done pioneering work on RNA thermodynamics and structure in the 1970s, focusing on both the energetics of base pairing and on folding by tRNAs. A decade later, he convinced Karen LeCuyer and me to reintroduce RNA into the lab. I was motivated in part by exciting new work …
