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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Atlanta, GA | Posted: March 9, 2010
"Molecular Midwives" May have Helped give Birth to Genetic Material of Life
Nick Hud, Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Associate Director of Georgia Tech's Institute for Bioengineering & Bioscience, has research on "Molecular Midwives" featured in Daily Times India.
Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered that small molecules could have acted as "molecular midwives" in helping the building blocks of life's genetic material form long chains and may have assisted in selecting the base pairs of the DNA double helix. "Our hypothesis is that before there were protein enzymes to make DNA and RNA, there were small molecules present on the pre-biotic Earth that helped make these polymers by promoting molecular self-assembly," said Nicholas V. Hud, professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
