Kiyoshi Nagai was a structural biologist who studied the complex molecular machine known as the spliceosome. In eukaryotic cells, the protein-coding sequences of most genes are interrupted by noncoding segments called introns. After introns are removed from precursor messenger RNAs (mRNAs), the flanking coding segments — exons — are spliced together to form mature mRNAs by the spliceosome.
If this splicing process fails, diseases can result. Kiyoshi combined X-ray crystallography and electron cryomicroscopy (cryoEM) with biochemical and genetic techniques in an effort to increase our knowledge of this critical process in eukaryotic gene expression.
Professor Kiyoshi Nagai FRS died on 27 September 2019.
Professional position
- Fellow, Darwin College, University of Cambridge
