College of Chemistry Newsjournal, Fall 2003

Research, according to Thomas Cech (Ph.D. '75 Chemistry), is a self-renewing cycle. "Students often worry about how they'll get ideas for research. It is actually not that difficult?most ideas stem from experimental results, and they in turn stimulate the next set of experiments," he said.

Cech, a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder and the President of the howard Hughes Medical Institute in Washington D.C. has had his share of inspired moments in the lab. His favorite experiment so far took place when he added radioactive GTP (guanosine triphosphate) to Tetrahymena RNA and found that it formed a covalent bond to the RNA without any protein enzyme in the solution-the RNA was providing the catalytic active site all on its own. It was a ground-breaking experiment, since it was thought that only proteins could serve as a catalyst, and led to his Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1989 (shared with Sydney Altman).

But there are still plenty of questions out there that inspire him everyday. "What is the history of the universe, and did it have a beginning? What is the origin of gravity? How many planets in our galaxy harbor life, and does it resemble life on Earth? See, we scientists answer the small questions pretty quickly; these big ones stay around for a long time," he smiled.

See, we scientists answer the small questions pretty quickly; these big ones stay around for a long time"

Cech was captivated by science early on. "In grade school, I loved collecting rocks, minerals, fossils and meteorites-windows into the formation of the Earth. By the time I was in fourth grade, I knew I'd be a scientist -I just didn't know what kind," he said.

"I grew up in the Midwest, majored in chemistry at Grinnell College in Iowa, where I met my wife, Carol, (Ph.D. '75 Chemistry). A summer program at LBNL brought us to Berkeley; we took one look, and knew that's where we wanted to be," he said.

As a graduate student, Cech took advantage of the promising nucleic acid research in the college. "My thesis advisor, John Hearst, shared his excitement about chromosomes and DNA, and showed me how rigorous physical chemistry could be applied to biological problems." This enthusiasm has never worn off, he has said.

Leaving Berkeley in 1975, he accepted a faculty position in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Boulder, where he discovered the workings of catalytic RNA and, more recently, is studying the activity and regulation of telomerase, an enzyme that plays an important role in cellular aging and in cancer formation.

"Because about 90% of diverse human cancers share the characteristic that telomerase is reactivated, and their continued proliferation is dependent on telomere replication, telomerase is an exceedingly attractive target - but the idea has not been critically tested yet. And while expression of telomerase can immortalize cultured human cells, the connection between that phenomenon and longevity of the human organism is obscure."

In addition to his busy academic career, Cech has served as President of the HHMI since 1999. Being in charge of a funding agency that doles out hundreds of millions of dollars is a definite change from his academic life, but he says, "there is some similarity to running a research lab, in that you try to pick the best people to work with you, then give them support and encouragement and critical feedback, and create an environment in which they feel free to speak their mind. It's different in that so much of what we do at headquarters in the DC area is non-science: investment management, finance, accounting, human resources, legal, etc. This has been a major learning experience for me."

"I would like to see more opportunities for students to do experiments, to test ideas. Ideally, the teacher should be a guide and a mentor for the students' exploration, starting right away freshman year of college"

Musing on science education in this day and age, he remarked, "Graduate courses at places like Berkeley and Boulder have been generally well-taught for a long time-literature-based, critical thinking, lots of discussion--so there's been no great need for change. Unfortunately, many undergraduate courses are still being taught in the same teacher-lectures-at-students mode as they were 30 years ago-and this contributes, I'm afraid, to the declining interest in science careers among today's college students.

Cech hopes to see science education grow to allow more exploration by students of the fields. "I would like to see more opportunities for students to do experiments, to test ideas. Ideally, the teacher should be a guide and a mentor for the students' exploration, starting right away freshman year of college. After all, undergrads at a place like Berkeley have already had college-level chemistry and biology in high school; even if they don't understand it very deeply, why give it to them again in a similar way using a similar textbook?"

As for any advice to burgeoning scientists in all fields, Cech notes, "If you love science, but the particular type of science you're doing doesn't drive you to want to go back to the lab every night, then try another subfield. Different areas of scientific research have different tempos, require different skills, provide different rewards - find one that best uses your talents."

Just as Cech has found his.

Related Sites

Tom Cech at HHMI

College of Chemistry UC Berkeley