Clemens Richert

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Clemens Richert (born May 14, 1965 in Münster ) is a German chemist. He is a professor for organic chemistry at the University of Stuttgart .

Richert studied chemistry at the University of Münster with an intermediate diploma in 1987 and at the University of Cologne with a diploma in 1990 with Emanuel Vogel . In 1993 he received his doctorate in human biology from the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich under K. Messmer and in 1994 from SA Benner in chemistry from the ETH Zurich . In 1995 he became an assistant professor in chemistry (and later also pharmacology) at Tufts University and in 2000 professor at the University of Konstanz , where he remained adjunct professor at Tufts University. In 2002 he became professor for organic chemistry at the University of Karlsruhe and in 2008 at the University of Stuttgart.

In his laboratory he developed chemical caps for oligonucleotide strands with a higher pairing specificity of the nucleotide bases at the ends than with normal DNA. Adenine in particular has weak binding to thymine, which led Richert and colleagues to develop a more strongly binding thymine substitute (C nucleoside). The weak bond has advantages in nature when it comes to the rapid separation of a DNA strand, for example at the start sequence, but it is a disadvantage in DNA tests. The new development therefore has commercial applications for DNA tests with a lower error rate.

One of the main focuses of his research are enzyme-free reactions of nucleic acids . In addition to commercial applications in biotechnology, such as the cheaper sequencing of short DNA and RNA sections, his research also concerns the question of the origin of the RNA world in the early history of the origin of life on earth. In the chicken or the egg the formation of double-stranded RNA he could with his staff make important contributions through the experimental study of duplex formation of RNA in an aqueous environment. They used iron oxide particles to fix the RNA strands and avoided the problem of hydrolysis of already formed strands (which in hydrolyzed form act as inhibitors for the further replication of the RNA) by constantly "washing away" the solution. He continues the experiments to recreate more realistic scenarios on the early Earth (for example with clay minerals for fixation instead of iron oxide particles).

In 2000 he received the ORCHEM Prize .

Fonts

  • with Eric Kervio, Annette Hochgesand, Ulrich E. Steiner: Templating efficiency of naked DNA, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, Volume 107, 2010, pp. 12074-12079, online
  • with Christopher Deck, Mario Jauker: Efficient enzyme-free copying of all four nucleobases templated by immobilized RNA. Nature Chem., 3, 2011, pp. 603-608.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Clemens Richert: Dimethylsulfone-bridged oligoribonucleotides . In: ETH Zurich (Ed.): Research Collection of ETH Zurich . doi : 10.3929 / ethz-a-001373882 .
  2. ↑ Improved base pairing for DNA, University of Stuttgart August 26, 2013
  3. ↑ M. Minuth, C. Richert, A nucleobase analog that pairs strongly with adenine. Angewandte Chemie, Volume 125, 2013. pp. 11074-11077; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Vol. 52, 2013, pp. 10874-10877.
  4. ↑ Clemens Richert researches the evolutionary role of RNA, BioPro Baden-Württemberg 2011
  5. ↑ ORCHEM Prize | Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker eV Accessed February 4, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Richert, Clemens
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Muenster