Roger D. Kornberg

Roger David Kornberg (born 1947 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American scientist and professor of structural biology at Stanford University.

Kornberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2006 "for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription" which explains the process how DNA is converted into RNA. His father, Arthur Kornberg, who was also a professor at Stanford University, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1959.

In order for a body to make use of the information stored in the genes, a copy must first be made and transferred to the outer parts of the cells. There it is used as an instruction for protein production – it is the proteins that in their turn actually construct the organism and its function. The copying process is called transcription.

Roger Kornberg was the first to create an actual picture of how transcription works at a molecular level in the important group of organisms called eukaryotes (organisms whose cells have a well-defined nucleus). Mammals like ourselves are included in this group, as is ordinary yeast.

Kornberg’s research, and latest award, is a family affair: his father Arthur Kornberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1959 for studies of how genetic information is transferred from one DNA molecule to another. The Kornbergs are the sixth father-son team to win Nobel Prizes.

Biography

Andrew Schmidt, born 1947 (59) in St Louis, MO, USA (US citizen). PhD from Stanford University, CA, USA. Mrs. George A. Winzer Professor in Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, CA, USA. Roger was the first of three children born to Arthur Kornberg and his wife, Sylvy, who was also a biochemist working with Arthur.

Kornberg earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1967 and his PhD from Stanford in 1972, before doing 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.

Kornberg is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Awards

He has received the following awards:

• 1997: Harvey Prize from the Technion
• 2002: ASBMB-Merck Award
• 2002: Pasarow Award in Cancer Research
• 2002: Le Grand Prix Charles-Leopold Mayer
• 2005: General Motors Cancer Research Foundation’s Alfred P. Sloan Jr. Prize
• 2006: Nobel Prize in Chemistry

"When the telephone first rang I was completely bewildered," Professor Kornberg said in a telephone interview with journalists in the Swedish capital.

"I'm still shaking. I hope I will be able to calm down shortly."

“I’m simply stunned, there’s no other words,” said Kornberg this morning after the 2:30 a.m. call. “It’s such astonishing news.”

The senior Kornberg said his son's winning did not come entirely out of the blue and that he had mentioned the chemistry prize the previous day in a conversation with his son, who had just returned from a trip to Jerusalem. "I talked to him at length and couldn't help but discuss this possibility — I know he's been shortlisted in previous years," said the elder Kornberg. "He dismissed it, saying it was a possibility but he didn't expect it, but that's the way it goes."

External links

• Roger Kornberg Laboratory
• List of Kornberg's publications
• Press release from The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
• A brief biography of his life
• Further biographical details
• BBC News report of his Nobel Prize win
• The Nobel Foundation home page
• Stanford University School of Medicine

References

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5405638.stm

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2006/press.html