Thomas R. Cech, Ph.d.

Biography

Dr. Thomas R. Cech, Tom, Ph.D., has been an Independent Director of Merck & Co., Inc. since May 27, 2009. Dr. Cech serves as Trustee of Grinnell College. He serves as a Director of the Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology. He has been the Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado, Biofrontiers Institute-Boulder since 1990. He was a Special Advisor of Morgenthaler since 2010. Dr. Cech specializes in evaluating early-stage biotechnology opportunities. He served as a Special Advisor at Lightstone Ventures. Dr. Cech served as Member of Scientific Advisory Board of Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. since January 2010. He served as the President of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) from January 2000 to March 2009. Dr. Cech joined the faculty of the University of Colorado in 1978. He served as an HHMI investigator since 1988. Dr. Cech's work has been recognized by many national and international awards and prizes, including the Heineken Prize of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences in 1988, the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 1988 and the National Medal of Science in 1995. In 1987, he was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and also awarded a lifetime professorship by the American Cancer Society. He was the 1989 co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his research finding that RNA can act as a catalyst for biologically important chemical reactions. He obtained his B.A. in Chemistry from Grinnell College, 1970. He is also a student of RNA transcription. He obtained his Ph.D in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1975 and then engaged in Postdoctoral research in the department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1987, he received an Honorary degree from Grinnell.

Research Interest

Pathology