Dr. James Attwater

Biography

James Attwater's research career has focused on investigating the capabilities of catalytic RNA, including the development of new catalytic RNA molecules in the laboratory to exhibit biological behavior that reflects the chemical nature of the early stages of life on Earth. He studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge, concentrating on biochemistry, and received his BA in 2007. During his postgraduate studies in Philipp Holliger’s group at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, he learned about molecular evolution and how to harness and recreate RNA molecules with catalytic capabilities found in nature. Specifically, he assembled a single-molecule sensitive flow cytometry-based in vitro evolution system to generate RNA catalysts to synthesize RNA, aiding the understanding of genetic information replication in the absence of proteins. He completed his PhD in 2011 and was awarded a Junior Research Fellowship at Homerton College, Cambridge, where he explored ways to combine ribozymes with compartments to model simple cells. Attwater's post-doctoral work enabled him to develop a strong interest in synthetic studies on catalytic RNA, further guiding theories on the origins of life on early Earth. As a post-doctoral investigator at the LMB, he guided talented undergraduate researchers towards developing catalytic RNA capable of building copies of short RNA building blocks. In 2021, he established a research group at UCL's Department of Chemistry, where he was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship to explore synthetic capabilities of RNA in a prebiotic chemical context.

Research Interests

Experience