Tom Cech — The Magic of RNA: New Medicines, Immortality, and the Power to Control Evolution
Nobel Prize-winning biochemist explores RNA's expanding role in medicine, from COVID vaccines to potential breakthroughs in aging and evolution.
Why we picked this
A Nobel laureate explaining RNA science to a general audience — free, with pizza. This is the kind of evening that makes you smarter.
Tom Cech won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering that RNA isn’t just a passive messenger — it’s a catalyst that can drive chemical reactions on its own. That discovery opened the door to everything from mRNA vaccines to new approaches to aging and genetic disease.
In this Distinguished Research Lecture at CU Boulder, Cech draws on his book “The Catalyst” to explain how RNA has gone from a biochemistry footnote to the most important molecule in modern medicine. He’ll cover the science behind COVID-19 vaccines, the potential for RNA-based therapies to treat previously untreatable diseases, and the deeper question: could RNA give us the tools to direct our own evolution?
Free and open to the public. Doors at 5:00 PM with pizza; lecture at 5:30. Book signing follows.