Last week, famous molecular biophysicist Éric Westhof came to Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech). He gave the 218^th lecture in the SUSTech Lecture Series, where he spoke about the “Modification of Transfer RNA in Decoding and Error Wrong Encoding.”

Professor Éric Westhof is a member of the French Académie des Sciences, the German Academy of Sciences, and the European Academy of Sciences. He currently teaches at the University of Strasbourg, France. Professor Éric Westhof served as the Director of the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the French National Research Centre in Strasbourg (2005-2016) and Vice President of Research and Doctoral Studies at the University of Strasbourg (2007-2012).

In the lecture, Professor Éric Westhof introduced the relationship between the RNA base sequence, the RNA three-dimensional structure, and the RNA molecule function. His lecture helped the attendees understand the continuous interaction between sequence changes, structure and activity of RNA during evolution.

Professor Éric Westhof pointed out that the structure of RNA in living organisms does not form a simple linear state. It can fold into a perfect spatial conformation and play a series of biological effects. He also listed the functions of both targeting and interfering RNA along with their applications in drug development.

Finally, Professor Éric Westhof discussed the complex molecular interaction network between ribosomes and mRNA (messenger RNA), tRNA (transfer RNA) and rRNA (ribosomal RNA). He listed some examples of RNA-induced mutations in human diseases.

During the Q&A session, the audience presented questions to Professor Éric Westhof who answered them all carefully.