Roger D. Kornberg
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 Roger Kornberg in 2006, at the Fairchild Auditorium at Stanford University |
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| Born | April 24, 1947 (age 61) St. Louis, Missouri, United States |
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| Residence | United States |
| Nationality | United States |
| Field | Structural biology |
| Institutions | Stanford University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Harvard Medical School |
| Alma mater | Harvard University (undergraduate), Stanford University (PhD) |
| Known for | Transmission of genetic information from DNA to RNA |
| Notable prizes |  Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2006),Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (2006) |
Professor Roger David Kornberg is an American biochemist who was born on April 24 1947. He is a professor of structural biology at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Kornberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2006 for studying eukaryotic transcription which is something that DNA does.[1][2] His father, Arthur Kornberg, who was a professor at Stanford University, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1959.
He was also awarded a Ph.D. from Umeå University in Sweden.
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[change] Early life
Kornberg was born in St. Louis, Missouri to a Jewish family. He was the first of three children born to Arthur Kornberg and his wife, Sylvy. These parents worked together as biochemists.
Roger Kornberg earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1967 and his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1972. He then became a fellow at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England.
[change] Important studies
All creatures are in some part controlled by their genes. For the creature to make use of the information in the genes, a copy of part of the gene must be made and sent to edge of a cell. The copying is called transcription. Transcription makes an RNA copy of part of the DNA. The RNA is moved out of the cell nucleus, where it does its work. This is called messenger RNA and gives instructions for protein production, called translation. Normally the genes give the instructions for what the proteins will do. The RNA with the instructions for proteins is called RNA polymerase II. Professor Kornberg has worked in eukaryotes to understand all this. This study involves the evolution of all plants and creatures, i.e., everything from yeast to humans.
After Professor Kornberg was awarded his Ph.D. he worked with Aaron Klug and Francis Crick at the MRC in the 1970s. He discovered the nucleosome as a very important protein in DNA.[3] Within the nucleosome, Kornberg found that roughly 200 bp of DNA are wrapped around an octamer of histone proteins.
Kornberg's research group at Stanford were able to make cells that are a part of everything from yeast to humans.
Using his system, Kornberg made the discovery that signals to the RNA are made by another protein that they called Mediator.[4] The Nobel Prize committee said, "the great complexity of eukaryotic organisms is actually enabled by the fine interplay between tissue-specific substances, enhancers in the DNA and Mediator. The discovery of Mediator is therefore a true milestone in the understanding of the transcription process."[5]
At the same as Kornberg was studying biochemistry, he used two decades trying to make microscopes that could take pictures of RNA and the proteins. Kornberg was an expert at studying lipid membranes. Lipid membranes are flat crystals and they can be pictured with an electron microscope in low-quality. After a lot of study, Kornberg was able to use X-ray crystallography to take 3D pictures of RNA atoms (see atom).[6][7] Professor Kornbergs pictures of RNA are the best pictures of protein ever. He has made good pictures of other proteins.[8] With these studies, Kornberg has created a picture of how DNA works. The Nobel Prize committee said, "the truly revolutionary aspect of the picture Kornberg has created is that it captures the process of transcription in full flow. What we see is an RNA-strand being constructed, and hence the exact positions of the DNA, polymerase and RNA during this process."[9]
In 1959, Roger Kornbergs father, Arthur Kornberg, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for studies of how genetic information moves from one DNA molecule to another. This is called DNA replication. Arthur Kornberg found the first enzyme that could make DNA. This was the first known enzyme to take its instructions from a DNA copy. Roger Kornbergs younger brother, Thomas Bill Kornberg, discovered DNA polymerases II and III in 1970 and is now a geneticist at the University of California, San Francisco. All three Kornbergs have worked to understand how genetic information is used in cells. Roger and Arthur Kornberg are the sixth father and son to win Nobel Prizes.
[change] Awards
Professor Kornberg has received these awards:
- 1997: Harvey Prize from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
- 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[10]
- 2006: Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- 2006: Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University
[change] References
- ↑ Roger Kornberg wins the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Stanford University School of Medicine.
- ↑ Press release: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2006. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
- ↑ Kornberg, R.D. (1974) Chromatin structure: a repeating unit of histones and DNA. Science 184, 868-871.
- ↑ Kelleher III, R.J., Flanagan, P.M. and Kornberg, R.D. (1990) A novel mediator between activator proteins and the RNA polymerase II transcription apparatus. Cell 61, 1209-1215.
- ↑ The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2006
- ↑ Cramer, P., Bushnell, D.A. and Kornberg, R.D. (2001) Structural basis of transcription: RNA polymerase II at 2.8 ångstrom resolution. Science 292, 1863-1876.
- ↑ Gnatt, A.L., Cramer, P., Fu, J., Bushnell, D.A. and Kornberg, R.D. (2001) Structural basis of transcription: An RNA polymerase II elongation complex at 3.3 Å resolution. Science 292, 1876-1882.
- ↑ Bushnell, D.A., Westover, K.D., Davis, R.E. and Kornberg, R.D. (2004) Structural basis of transcription: An RNA polymerase II – TFIIB cocrystal at 4.5 angstroms. Science 303, 983-988.
- ↑ A family story about life 2006
- ↑ The 2005 Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Laureate. Retrieved on 4 October 2006.
[change] Other websites
- Roger Kornberg Laboratory
- List of Kornberg's publications
- The Nobel Foundation home page
- 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 Official Site of Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize
