Thomas Cech, a Nobel laureate who studied the catalytic properties of RNA, has announced plans to step down from the top spot at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, according to the organization's website.

Cech, who has been HHMI president since 2000, said in a communication to institute staff that the time had come for a change. In the spring of 2009, Cech will return to his position as an HHMI investigator at the University of Colorado, where he's been on the faculty since 1978. "I'm ready to return to the adventure of my own research and my own teaching," he said in a statement.

HHMI has not yet announced Cech's successor.

(Image on homepage courtesy of HHMI)