Alan Marc Lambowitz

Alan M. Lambowitz is a Professor in the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology and the Department of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. His research has focused on mobile genetic elements, autocatalytic introns (“ribozymes”), and novel reverse transcriptases, their biochemical properties, evolutionary significance, and biotechnological applications. Notable discoveries include one of the first examples of protein-assisted RNA catalysis; that certain introns in mitochondrial DNA and bacteria are mobile genetic elements; that RNA helicases can function as RNA chaperones to fold cellular RNAs into biologically active structures; the elucidation of mechanisms by which introns spread to new sites within genomes; and novel mechanisms of reverse transcription and the reverse flow of genetic information from RNA to DNA. He also pioneered the development of gene targeting vectors called “targetrons” and the use of thermostable group II intron reverse transcriptases (“TGIRTs”) for biotechnological applications, including RNA cloning and next-generating sequencing.