STORM Therapeutics has appointed Nobel Prize Winner Professor Thomas Cech as a Scientific Advisor. Thomas is Distinguished Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder and Director, University of Colorado BioFrontiers Institute. He has spent decades at the frontier of research into RNA biology discovering novel biologic mechanisms important to cellular function and shaping both academic and commercial efforts in the RNA field.  Professor Cech was the scientific founder of Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (1992-99) which became Sirna Therapeutics and is now an operating subsidiary of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Merck & Co, New Jersey, USA.

In 1982 Professor Cech and his research group announced that an RNA molecule from Tetrahymena, a single-celled pond organism, cut and rejoined chemical bonds in the complete absence of proteins. This discovery of self-splicing RNA provided the first exception to the long-held belief that biological reactions are always catalyzed by proteins. In addition, it has been heralded as providing a new, plausible scenario for the origin of life; because RNA can be both an information-carrying molecule and a catalyst, perhaps the first self-reproducing system consisted of RNA alone.