Rachel Green is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of molecular biology and genetics at the

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Hos ...

. Her research focuses on

ribosomes Ribosomes ( ) are macromolecular machines, found within all cells, that perform biological protein synthesis (mRNA translation). Ribosomes link amino acids together in the order specified by the codons of messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules to ...

and their function in

translation Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

. Green has also been a

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, f ...

investigator since 2000.

Early life and education

Rachel Green was born on October 24, 1964. Green grew up in Rocky River, Ohio, where her mother was a chemistry teacher. Green intended to study engineering in college, but changed her major to chemistry, earning a B.S. from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1986. She then earned a PhD in

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1992, in the lab of

Jack Szostak Jack William Szostak (born November 9, 1952) is a Canadian American biologist of Polish British descent, Nobel Prize laureate, university professor at the University of Chicago, former Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, and Alexan ...

, where she studied

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes. RNA and deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) are nucleic acids. Along with lipids, proteins, and carbohydra ...

. She did postdoctoral research at

University of California Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge of ...

in the lab of Harry Noller, researching the function of the ribosome in

E. coli ''Escherichia coli'' (),Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. also known as ''E. coli'' (), is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus ''Escher ...

Career

Green joined the faculty at

in 1998. In 2007 she became a full professor at Johns Hopkins. Green has been a

investigator since 2000. She was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

in 2012, to the

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, En ...

in 2017, and to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...

in 2019.

Research

The focus of Green's laboratory is defining the molecular mechanisms that affect that accuracy of

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were am ...

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to consti ...

, and higher

eukaryotic Eukaryotes () are organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the three domains of life. Bact ...

systems. After joining Johns Hopkins as a tenure-track assistant professor in 1998, Green began investigations into factors that control the translocation step of translation, where the ribosome moves forward over the messenger RNA (mRNA), prior to adding the next

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha ...

to the growing

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respon ...

. Later, Green's research segued into studies on molecular factors and global mechanisms that affect translation accuracy. In particular, Green and her colleagues found that certain

nucleotide Nucleotides are organic molecules consisting of a nucleoside and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both of which are essential biomolecul ...

s in

transfer RNA Transfer RNA (abbreviated tRNA and formerly referred to as sRNA, for soluble RNA) is an adaptor molecule composed of RNA, typically 76 to 90 nucleotides in length (in eukaryotes), that serves as the physical link between the mRNA and the amino a ...

(tRNA) molecules affect the ability of the ribosome to determine and select the correct tRNA in each step of translation. Green's investigations into other aspects of translation quality control have included research into the mechanisms and effects of mRNA surveillance, in which mis-coded or nonfunctional mRNAs are subjected to degradation.

Awards

* 1996 Burroughs Wellcome Career Award,

Burroughs Wellcome Foundation The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...

* 1999 Searle Scholarship Award, Searle Foundation * 2000 Packard Fellowship Award,

David and Lucile Packard Foundation The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is a private foundation that provides grants to not-for-profit organizations. It was created in 1964 by David Packard (co-founder of HP) and his wife Lucile Salter Packard. Following David Packard's death ...

* 2012 Elected Member, National Academy of Sciences * 2017 Elected Member, National Academy of Medicine * 2019 Elected Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Publications

Green has more than 16,000 citations in Google Scholar and an h-index of 69.
Pubmed Citations

Google Scholar Citations
Selected Publications * 2012 with S Djuranovic, A Nahvi, ''miRNA-mediated gene silencing by translational repression followed by mRNA deadenylation and decay'', in: ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

''. Vol. 336, nº 6078; 237-240. * 2010 with T Schneider-Poetsch, J Ju, DE Eyler, Y Dang, S Bhat, WC Merrick, B Shen, JO Liu, ''Inhibition of eukaryotic translation elongation by cycloheximide and lactimidomycin'', in: ''

Nature Chemical Biology ''Nature Chemical Biology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio. It was established in June 2005. Terry L. Sheppard is a full-time professional editor with the title, "Chief Editor", and employed by ''Nature ...

''. Vol. 6, nº 3; 209-217. * 1997 with HF Noller, ''Ribosomes and translation'', in: ''Annual Review of Biochemistry''. Vol. 66, nº 1; 679-716. * 2011 with S Djuranovic, A Nahvi, ''A parsimonious model for gene regulation by miRNAs'', in: ''Science''. Vol. 331, nº 6017; 550-553. * 1989 with F Michel, M Hanna, DP Bartel, JW Szostak, ''The guanosine binding site of the Tetrahymena ribozyme'', in: ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...

''. Vol. 342, nº 6248; 391-395.

Personal life

Green's husband, Brendan Cormack, is also a geneticist at Johns Hopkins University. The couple has 3 children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Rachel Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Howard Hughes Medical Investigators American women biochemists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Members of the National Academy of Medicine Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 20th-century American biologists 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American biologists 21st-century American women scientists Biologists from Ohio University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Living people 1964 births American women academics Johns Hopkins School of Medicine faculty