UC Santa Cruz RNA Center hosts documentary screening and panel

October 21, 2025 / by Caroline Hemphill read on santacruzsentinel.com

SANTA CRUZ — The UC Santa Cruz RNA Center hosted a premiere screening of “Cracking the Code: Phil Sharp and the Biotech Revolution” at the Landmark Del Mar Theatre Monday night. The film chronicles the life of Nobel laureate and molecular biologist Phil Sharp and the boom of the biotechnology industry. The film screening was followed by a panel discussion about Santa Cruz’s place in biotech, as well as a more general conversation about the importance of RNA research.

RNA, a biomolecule similar to DNA that has several essential functions in the cell, has become the basis for the broad field of biomedicine. UCSC’s RNA Center is a network of 20 laboratories at the university that work to develop RNA-based therapeutics and diagnostic tools. Researchers at the center, which was founded in 1992, include Nobel laureate Carol Greider and founding director Harry Noller, who won the 2017 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.

Sharp, a pioneer of the field, is best known for discovering RNA splicing in 1977, a biological process in which sections of RNA are removed and the remaining pieces stitched together to allow for the creation of proteins. The discovery won Sharp the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1993, and became the foundation for a broad field of research and several therapeutic treatments, including the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine.

“Cracking the Code” begins by detailing Sharp’s childhood on a Kentucky tobacco farm and takes the viewer through his efforts to break into the field, his landmark discovery and his role in the early development of the now booming biotechnology industry. The film was directed by Bill Haney and narrated by actor Mark Ruffalo, and is available to watch on PBS.

Noller was among those on the post-screening panel, along with Lauren Linton, executive director of UCSC’s Genomics Institute; Richard Green, a paleogenomics researcher and biotechnology entrepreneur; Fred Keeley, mayor of Santa Cruz; and William Fairbrother, a researcher at Brown University and an alumnus of Sharp’s lab. The panel took audience questions. They discussed the work being done at the RNA Center, and the difficulties with misinformation surrounding the science of RNA and particularly around mRNA vaccines. But to begin, the panel started with the question: Why not Santa Cruz? Jeremy Sanford, co-director of the RNA Center, asked the panelists why they thought there wasn’t more biotech industry activity in Santa Cruz, despite UCSC’s deep roots in the fields of genomics and RNA research.

Green, who owns three biotech companies in town, said that there is already a biotech scene in Santa Cruz. Linton agreed, saying that UCSC and the RNA Center already have the curiosity, expertise and collaboration of other biotech hubs such as Cambridge and San Francisco.

Green said that it’s really a question of how to make Santa Cruz a “vibrant, risk-taking place.” He said that closer collaboration with medical schools could help Santa Cruz be more attractive to biotech companies. Keeley agreed, and brought up “rumors” that a medical school may someday come to UCSC. Linton noted that biotech entrepreneurs would also need to feel that they had an investment community nearby that could help them feel confident to take the risks necessary to start a biotech company.

The biggest hurdle, however, is Santa Cruz’s formidable housing market, panelists agreed. Green discussed how recruiting for biotech startups can be difficult, as prospective employees are often not willing to move somewhere they wouldn’t be able to buy a home.

“The housing issue rises to the top very rapidly here,” Keeley said. He asserted that development of more on-campus housing at UCSC would ease housing markets in the rest of the city for both renters and buyers. He also said that Measure C, if passed on Nov. 4, would allow the construction of more affordable housing.

Right now, Green said, it’s “almost a rite of passage” for companies to move over the hill to the San Jose area when they become successful. Once that stops happening, he said, it will be a sign that Santa Cruz has made a name for itself as a place businesses want to be.

“We’ll know we’ve made it when that happens,” Green said. “When people want to stay here.”