Alexander Spirin

Alexander Spirin is interested in the mechanisms of protein synthesis by the ribosome. He and his collaborators have found that the ribosomal RNA self folds into a ribosome-like core that serves as a scaffold for the arrangement of ribosomal proteins. They demonstrated that, unlike the common belief, the ribosomal proteins have globular conformation and used the tritium bombardment technique to investigate the topography of ribosomal proteins on the ribosome surface. They found that the ribosomes can synthesize polypeptides without the elongation factors and GTP and even without any template and concluded that the ribosome is self-sufficient in performing its main functions. They demonstrated that the synthesized polypeptides are capable of co-translational folding into functional proteins. They invented the technique for in vitro translation of RNA templates immobilized on a solid support and used it for studies of the mechanism of translation and for the isolation of translationally active ribosomes. They invented the continuous-flow cell-free translation systems and used them for the large-scale synthesis of biologically active proteins. Recently, they concentrated on the studies of the structure of polyribosomes and on cap-independent initiation in eukaryotic cell-free translation systems.