Although several graduate students had just wheeled in 18 extra large pizzas and several cases of soda and beer into the seminar room, the advice that evening from CU-Boulder Professor Tom Cech was on the money.
"Grab some quick," he said. "This stuff goes fast."
Cech and about 100 other students, faculty and local biotechnology company scientists had gathered for another bi-monthly meeting of the RNA Club focused on the intriguing genetic material known as ribonucleic acid, or RNA. A charter RNA Club member, Cech shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery that RNA could catalyze chemical reactions.
The club聮s beginnings can be traced to chemistry and biochemistry Professor Olke Uhlenbeck. Uhlenbeck, an RNA specialist, was being recruited from the University of Illinois to chair CU-Boulder聮s chemistry and biochemistry department in 1985. He agreed to come, but on one condition: that CU聮s various RNA research groups meet together on a regular basis as a way to share information and conquer the isolation inherent in research labs.
At the time, several CU research groups were studying varying aspects of RNA, including labs headed by Cech and molecular, cellular and developmental biology Professors Larry Gold and Michael Yarus.
"The first meetings were really informal and included everyone from our labs, maybe 30 people in all," recalled Uhlenbeck. "RNA research was going great guns by then, and we had a lot of good times."
Part of the excitement was the realization that some RNA molecules, dubbed ribozymes, play an active role in cellular chemistry. Since ribozymes can be designed to act as "molecular scissors" and snip out harmful genetic sequences in chromosomes, researchers believe therapeutic RNA techniques may soon be the key to fighting viruses and cancer and may help in developing specialized strains of crops and new treatments for animal diseases.
Today, CU聮s RNA Club continues to thrive. Attendance averages about 100 people, including students and faculty from eight research groups on campus, researchers from CU聮s Health Sciences Center and scientists from several private Boulder companies spawned from RNA discoveries at CU-Boulder, including Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals Inc. and NeXstar Pharmaceuticals Inc.
"The amazing thing to me is the attendance in this club has been high for more than 10 years," said Cech. "Normally these types of groups start with a lot of people, then begin declining and eventually disappear."
The two-hour meetings have evolved into seminars organized by graduate students and feature two researchers (usually graduate students or post docs), who each present 45-minute talks on their work. "Members ask serious research questions, but there聮s also a lot of joking," says Uhlenbeck.
But since the average graduate student gives an RNA Club presentation only once or twice in his or her academic career, the pressure is on. "These students are presenting their research in a room filled with some of the real pros in the business, and they know it," said Uhlenbeck. "For some students, the presentations seem as big a deal as their thesis defense."
Although CU has a long-standing reputation as "The RNA Capital of the World," at least a half dozen other RNA Clubs now pepper the country, including a top-flight group in the San Francisco Bay area started by former CU researchers. "The RNA community is having its decade in the sun," said Uhlenbeck. "Work by Tom (Cech) and others showing RNA was a catalyst certainly has helped, and new tactics and methods that have been developed for RNA research have caused a lot of people to pile on the bandwagon."
The two students running CU-Boulder聮s RNA Club meetings this year, doctoral candidates Karl Kossen and Gennyne Walker, enjoy their role of selecting speakers and topics and organizing club meetings. "We get a lot of input and feedback from key players in the RNA field," said Walker, who works in MCD biology Professor Leslie Leinwand聮s lab on the genetics of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the leading cause of death among young athletes. "We have had a lot of fun doing it this year."
Kossen, who is studying the structure and function of a new class of RNA protein in Uhlenbeck聮s lab, said co-directing the RNA club for a year has its advantages. "We get to talk with people we ordinarily would not have contact with about their research," he said. "That way we learn first-hand about new ideas and techniques we can incorporate into our own work."