Now, a pair of Scripps Research Institute scientists has taken a significant step toward answering that question. The scientists have synthesized for the first time RNA enzymes that can replicate ...

UC Vice President for Research Patrick Limbach is a key figure in the National Academies’ massive undertaking to sequence RNA in the next 15 years. A chemist who leads the University of Cincinnati’s ...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 119, No. 4 (January 25, 2022), pp. 1-11 (11 pages) RNA is a ubiquitous biomolecule that can serve as both catalyst ...

A new method can test the activity of thousands of RNA enzymes, called ribozymes, in a single experiment. The "RNA world" hypothesis proposes that the earliest life on Earth may have been based on RNA ...

RNA plays a vital role in how our genes are expressed and how diseases develop. Yet, because RNA molecules constantly change shape, understanding how they work has long been a major scientific ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. For a molecule of RNA, the world is a dangerous place. Unlike DNA, which can persist for millions of years in its remarkably stable, ...