Thomas Cech

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 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. He has also studied telomeres, and his lab discovered an enzyme, TERT (telomerase reverse transcriptase), which is part of the process of restoring telomeres after they are shortened during cell division. As president of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (2000–2008) he promoted science education, and he teaches an undergraduate chemistry course at the University of Colorado.