Catalytic RNA: structure and mechanism.

The Hopkins Lecturer is given the charge of explaining how advances in other fields of science have had an impact on his or her own field of biochemistry. A moment’s thought revealed that it was not at all difficult to think of examples where other scientific fields have provided necessary groundwork for the study of RNA catalysis or RNA biochemistry in general. Rather, it was difficult to choose among all the possibilities. I have chosen to provide some examples of how the fields of enzymology, synthetic chemistry and even protein crystallography have paved the way for our own research. Of course, there is interchange in both directions, and the Hopkins Lecturer is also charged with explaining how advances in his or her own field have had an impact on biochemistry as a whole. In the case of RNA catalysis, we see spinoffs for research into the origin of life, for the understanding of cellular processes including protein synthesis and mRNA splicing and potentially in the field of medicine.