Life on Earth may have started with a molecule that still runs our cells today. As researchers probe ribonucleic acid in the lab and in ancient rocks and space dust, RNA is yielding clues that are far ...

Two separate laboratory breakthroughs have produced RNA molecules that can build copies of themselves or assemble functional structures without any help from proteins or DNA. These results offer the ...

These random molecules were fed a collection of three-base-long RNAs, each linked to a chemical tag. The idea was that if a molecule is capable of ligating one of these short RNA fragments to itself, ...

Our genes contain all the instructions our body needs to function, but their expression must be finely regulated to guarantee that each cell performs its role optimally. This is where DNA and RNA ...

RNA is a central biological macromolecule, now widely harnessed in medicine and nanotechnology. Like proteins, RNA function often depends on its precise three-dimensional structure. A recent study ...

An innovative three-color method for capturing images of mRNA inside live mammalian cells has been developed by UMass Amherst chemists. Because RNA is both incredibly important to human life and ...

Chemists have demonstrated how RNA (ribonucleic acid) might have replicated itself on early Earth -- a key process in the origin of life. Chemists at UCL and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology ...

QIMR Berghofer scientists have discovered a cancer-fighting RNA molecule that could hold the key to a new way of treating the ...