Lecture - Thursday 26 November 2009

"REPROGRAMMING THE CODE OF LIFE"

Dr Jason Chin
University of Cambridge

Location:
The Royal Society,
6-9 Carlton House,
London SW1Y 5AG

Time: 6.30pm

The Francis Crick Prize Lecture is due to be held at the Royal Society at 6.30pm on Thursday 26 November 2009, which I hope will be of interest to you. Please feel free to pass this on to the staff and students in your department who may be interested.

The information for synthesizing the molecules that allow organisms to survive and replicate is encoded in genomic DNA. In the cell, DNA is copied to messenger RNA which is decoded in the process of translation to synthesize polymers of the natural 20 amino acids. This process (DNA > RNA > protein) describes the central dogma of molecular biology and is conserved in terrestrial life.

Dr Chin will discuss the invention and synthetic evolution of new orthogonal translational components (including ribosomes and aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases) to address the major challenges in re-writing the central dogma of biology. He will discuss the application of the approaches he has developed for incorporating unnatural amino acids into proteins and investigating diverse biological processes, with a particular emphasis on understanding the role of post-translational modifications.

Dr Chin is a Group Leader at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC-LMB), and a fellow in the Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge. Dr Chin and his group are interested in re-writing the central dogma to create organisms that synthesize proteins containing unnatural amino acids and polymers composed of monomer building blocks beyond the 20 natural amino acids.

This lecture is free - no ticket or advanced booking required. Doors open at 5.45pm and seats will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

This lecture will be webcast LIVE at royalsociety.org/live and available to view on demand within 48 hours of delivery at our video archive, royalsociety.tv