CeNS colloquium

Organized by Center for NanoScience

Details

Andres Jäschke, Universität Heidelberg: Chemical Biology of RNA: Cofactors, imaging tools, and switches The chemical nature of present-day coenzymes has been one of the pillars of the RNA world hypothesis. Our lab has discovered that such coenzymes are covalently linked to certain RNA species in various bacteria and in higher organisms. This finding not only provides an exciting connection between metabolism and gene regulation, but also an interesting loop back to the RNA world, as evolutionarily, these coenzyme-linked RNAs may be vestiges of RNA world metabolic ribozymes. In addition to exploring these connections in breadth and depth, we also develop new tools for RNA research, namely high-performance probes for RNA in vivo super-resolution imaging, and oligonucleotides that can be reversibly switched by light.