The biochemist, Professor Volker A. Erdmann, of Freie
Universität Berlin has sent samples containing 50 different ribonucleic
acid (RNA) molecules into space aboard the Russian Soyuz rocket TMA-16. The
samples were due to return to Earth on October 10. The aim of the space mission
was to make the ribonucleic acids crystallize in weightlessness. Using this
method the scientists can learn more about the structure and function of the
RNA molecules that control what happens in a cell. With this knowledge, scientists
hope to develop variants of RNA molecules with improved biological properties
that can be used to combat malignancy or viral infection by targeting and eliminating
diseased cells.
Thanks to cooperation with the NASA astronaut and university professor, Dr.
Larry DeLuca, Professor Volker A. Erdmann sent the samples to the International
Space Station (ISS) approximately 350 kilometers away from the Earth. The crystallized
RNA molecules are to be picked up from Moscow on October 12, to be subsequently
measured at the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg with the help
of X-ray structure analysis.
Twenty years ago Volker A. Erdmann together with Heinz-Günter Wittmann
and Ada Jonath, who a few days ago was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry,
laid the basis for exploring the structure of ribosomes. They were the first
to crystallize ribosomes and, using the X-ray structure analysis, sorted the
approximately 300,000 atoms in a three-dimensional space. Ribosomes, the protein
factories of the cell, consist of proteins and RNA molecules that not only bind
the proteins, but also have the catalytic properties to produce the proteins
from 20 different building blocks.
Volker A. Erdmann and his team expect that the structural analysis of RNA samples
will contribute to a better understanding of the function of ribosomes and that
the results will be incorporated into molecular medicine.
In 1998 Erdmann founded the RNA Network that, since then, has been funded with
60 million euros from the Berlin Senate, the Federal Ministry for Education
and Research, and partners from industry. More than 25 research groups of universities
in Berlin, Max Planck Institutes, and other non-university institutions and
companies are involved in the RNA network.
Posted October 12th, 2009
