A team of Bar-Ilan University scientists has succeeded in taking the first photograph of bonucleic acid (RNA) in an animal cell. The so-called messenger material which relays orders to the protein-building mechanism in each cell had hitherto been photographed only in bacteria. Bar-IIan announced Sunday that the breakthrough was made by a team headed by Prof. Max Herzberg, with Dr. J. Dubochet and Dr. E. Kellenberger of the Basle Biozentrum in Switzerland, using Bar-Ilan University’s electron microscope which is capable of magnifying up to 500,000 times. According to Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein, Bar-Ilan chancellor, the new achievement opens the way for scientists to understand fully the functions of RNA protein complexes in animals. Prof. Herzberg, 32, was born in Paris, came to Israel in 1967 and joined the Bar-IIan faculty in 1971.
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