Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence Focused on Therapy Response

2009 Annual CCNE-TR Symposium

Roger Kornberg, Ph.D.
Professor, Structural Biology
Stanford University
2006 Chemistry Nobel Laureate

Roger David Kornberg is an American biochemist and professor of structural biology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Kornberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2006 "for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription" which explains the process by which genetic information from DNA is copied to RNA.

Dr. Kornberg's scientific goal is to elucidate the fundamental basis of gene regulation. He studies the control of transcription, the first step in the pathway of gene expression. Highlights of his work from the past decade include: discovery of a human homolog of the 20-protein yeast Mediator complex, the central processing unit of gene regulation, which integrates positive and negative inputs to the transcription machinery; structure determination of 10-subunit, half million Dalton RNA polymerase II, in the act of transcription, with template DNA and product RNA, by X-ray crystallography at atomic resolution; structure determination of the entire transcription initiation complex by two-dimensional protein crystallography; elucidation of the role of the nucleosome and of chromatin-remodeling complexes in transcription. His current work is directed towards the structure of the entire transcription apparatus at atomic resolution and the mechanism of transcription control in living cells.

Roger Kornberg earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1967 and his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1972. He conducted post-doctoral research at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, United Kingdom. He joined Harvard Medical School in 1976 as an assistant professor in the department of biological chemistry. Kornberg returned to Stanford in 1978 as a professor in the structural biology department. He served as department chair from 1984 until 1992. He serves as the Mrs. George A. Winzer Professor in Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. Kornberg is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the Royal Society. His many honors include the Welch prize, highest award in chemistry in the United States, and the Grand Prix of the French Academy of Sciences, as well as honorary degrees at universities in Israel, Germany, and Sweden.

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