Abstract
A highly advanced physical method, MAD/SAD crystallography, enabled the basic understanding of the chemical and biological aspects of the mode of action of ribosomes, the universal and highly effective protein-synthesis organelles, which translate the genetic code to proteins in all living cells. Following extensive studies, sophisticated analysis of diseases associated with ribosomes mutations including cancer, Alzheimer’s and anemia, was enabled. Parallel chemical analysis shed light on their origin and proposed the existence of a universal small RNA pocket-like segment, termed by us the protoribosome, which is still embedded within contemporary ribosomes as the vestige of the primordial ribosome, thus hinting at the RNA world transition to current life.
