bio

Ribozyme

An RNA molecule that folds into a shape able to catalyse a chemical reaction — doing the job once thought to belong to proteins alone. Ribozymes are not speculative: they were found in living cells in the 1980s, and the catalytic core of the ribosome itself — the machine that builds every protein in your body — is one. That is why a molecule that both stores information and catalyses its own chemistry stopped being a far-fetched idea.