March 29, 1995 Contact: Pamela Donegan or Robert Irion (408/459-2495)

RENOWNED MOLECULAR BIOLOGIST TO GIVE PUBLIC LECTURE ABOUT HIS SCIENTIFIC ROAD LESS TRAVELED BY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CRUZ, CA--As his life's work, Harry Noller figures out what makes life work. Noller, a professor of biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, might not put it in such grandiose terms, of course. Nevertheless, his research has helped explain one of biology's biggest mysteries: the tiny ribosome.

Now everyone can be in on the secret. On Wednesday, April 19, Noller will present the 29th annual Faculty Research Lecture, an honor bestowed by the Santa Cruz Division of the Academic Senate to recognize outstanding faculty achievements. Noller's talk, entitled "Exploring Ribosomal RNA: The Heart of an Ancient Molecular Machine," will begin at 8 p.m. in the Performing Arts Theater on the UCSC campus.

Noller holds the endowed Robert Louis Sinsheimer Chair of Molecular Biology and is director of the Center for the Molecular Biology of RNA. He was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences in 1992. In nominating him to deliver this year's speech, the UCSC Committee on the Faculty Research Lecture referred to Noller's "preeminence in his discipline" and the broad applications of his work.

"Professor Noller's accomplishments represent not simply additional increments of knowledge to an already established field, but rather take the field of research into entirely new directions," wrote committee members.

Noller had little thought for taking the field into new directions when he joined the UCSC faculty in 1968. He and his graduate students formed only one group among several then studying ribosomes. They knew ribosomes were critical because every life-form had them, from bacteria to blue whales. They also knew that ribosomes were the factories of cells, turning the design plans of genes into the stuff of life: proteins. But, like other researchers, they believed that the proteins within the ribosome powered its minuscule machinery. They gave little thought to the other half of ribosome structure, the RNA. A first cousin to DNA, RNA was typecast as a mere helper molecule. Biologists had never seen it run a chemical reaction like the protein assembly in ribosomes.

However, after peering at ribosomal proteins for four years, Noller and his students were frustrated. Careful experiments had repeatedly failed. Then they found the solution: Proteins don't drive the ribosome, RNA does. "Once in a while, when things don't make sense, it can be a signal that you've just discovered something," says Noller. "That's what happened with the RNA."

When they made this discovery, back in 1972, other researchers in the field didn't believe it. All continued to see ribosomal RNA as simple scaffolding to hold the active proteins, not as the piston pumping the ribosome engine. "No one took us seriously," says Noller. "I was actually disinvited to write a chapter for the ribosome book in 1973."

Being outsiders, or "oddballs" as Noller says, proved a boon to the small UCSC contingent. "We had almost ten years of unmolested progress," he says. By the time other researchers recognized the importance of ribosomal RNA, Noller's group had successfully dissected the molecule, mapped its parts and structure, and deduced much of its mechanism.

Still, ribosomes are so incredibly complex, their remaining mysteries will probably keep Noller and his students busy for years to come. "It's a life's work for any hundred people put together, I think," he says. He views the challenge with enthusiasm: "It's the most worthwhile thing I could imagine doing in science."

For more information on Noller's talk, call the UCSC Public Information Office at 459-2495.

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