2024 Frontiers of Science - Professor John Mattick

Exploring major discoveries and theories in physics, mathematics, biology and chemistry at this year’s combined AIP, TGNSW, RSNSW and RACI meeting https://www.aip.org.au/FoS

Ever since the Copernicun revolution in the 15th century science has been progressing at an exponential rate. Major discoveries and theories in physics, mathematics, biology and chemistry, have shaped and continue to grow at an exponential rate. The Frontiers of Science forum will have a group of international experts to give brief talks on the latest and future developments in their fields of knowledge.

Presenter:
Professor John Mattick AO FAA FTSE FAHMS FRSN HonFRCPA,
Professor of RNA Biology, University of New South Wales, Sydney.

Abstract:
The misunderstanding of molecular biology
It has been assumed for decades that genes mainly encode proteins and that the mechanisms controlling human development are the same as those that regulate microbial physiology. It was a shock to find that less than 2% of the human genome encodes proteins and that the number (about 20,000) and repertoire of human protein-coding genes are similar to a worm that only has 1,000 cells. While initially dismissed as ‘junk’, most of the human genome is in fact dynamically transcribed to produce large numbers of RNAs that do not encode proteins. These RNA are expressed from hundreds of thousands of enigmatic genetic loci called ‘enhancers’, which control the spatiotemporal patterns of gene expression using sophisticated echanisms that involve liquid crystal physics and a plethora of feed-forward epigenetic modifications to direct the trillions of cell fate decisions that must be made with high precision between conception and adult