Abstract:
DNA makes RNA makes Protein – while the Central Dogma has inspired molecular biologists for decades, we have equally realised that RNA biology has more to offer. Following the discovery that the RNA-binding proteome is far larger than previously anticipated (Castello et al., 2012), riboregulation, the direct control of protein function by RNA, has begun to emerge as a new paradigm of biological control (Horos et al., 2019; Huppertz et al., 2022; Chatterjee et al., 2024; Hentze et al., 2025). We are beginning to understand molecular mechanisms of riboregulation, and I will discuss their implications for cell biology, metabolism and disease mechanisms as well as the new therapeutic opportunities. I will also share unpublished data that add a new dimension to the concept of riboregulation, the discovery of mammalian proteins that are covalently linked to RNA (‘RNA-tagged proteins’, RTPs). Their exploration is expected to yield unexpected insights into cell biology and offer broad potential for translational innovation.

Bio:
Matthias Hentze is currently Director of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg (Germany). Following medical studies in Germany and the UK, and his qualification as a medical doctor, he obtained his postdoctoral training at the NIH (USA) in the late 1980s, when he and his colleagues discovered “iron-responsive elements” as the first mammalian regulatory elements in mature mRNAs. Following the establishment at EMBL in 1989 and after two decades of elucidating mechanisms of RNA regulation by RNA-binding proteins, recent work by the Hentze group has uncovered many hundreds of new RNA-binding proteins. Supported by an ERC Advanced Grant and other funds, their work identified riboregulation as a novel principle of biological control and elucidated unanticipated roles of RNA. 

Prof. Hentze is a co-founder of the Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit (MMPU), a joint interdisciplinary and translational academic research unit of the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University and the EMBL, which bridges between medicine and molecular biology. He is also the co-founder of Anadys Pharmaceuticals, one of the early (2000) RNA-based companies that went public in 2004 and was acquired by Roche in 2011. With his extensive experience in scientific management, Matthias serves or has served on numerous international scientific advisory and editorial boards. Matthias Hentze’s research contributions have been recognized in numerous ways including Germany’s most prestigious scientific award, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in 2000, the 2007 Lautenschläger Research Prize of Heidelberg University, and the 2015 Feodor Lynen Medal of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He is also the 2020 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the RNA Society and the 2023 recipient of the Centenary Award of the Biochemical Society. He received an honorary doctorate by the Australian National University in Canberra, and is an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO), the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Academia Europaea, the Australian Academy of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Matthias is the recipient of the Otto Warburg Medal 2025 of the Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.