Prize Lectureship

Prize Lecturer 2004 - Professor Joan Steitz

Pre-mRNA Splicing: the Tie that Binds

Professor Joan Steitz of Yale University delivered the Foundation's 2004 Prize Lecture at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 24 May and again at the University of Dundee on 26 May.

Pre-messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) splicing is an essential step in gene expression in higher cells. The removal of introns from gene transcripts is orchestrated by the spliceosome, an RNA-based machine that contains five essential RNA-protein complexes (called snRNPs) as well as many protein factors. In her Lecture, Professor Steitz first outlined the history of snRNPs and followed this with a discussion of some of the major surprises concerning the nature of the spliceosomes and introns that have recently been uncovered. Then, current challenges, such as how splicing is linked at the molecular level, to other steps in gene expression, were considered.

The text of the lecture is available for download in pdf format.[Download file]

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