Title: Roger D. Kornberg Content: Roger David Kornberg (born ) is an American biochemist and Nobel prize winner. Kornberg got the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2006 for studying eukaryote transcription (the copying of information from DNA to RNA). Kornberg is a professor of Structural Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine. His father, Arthur Kornberg, was also a professor at Stanford University, and got the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1959. == 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. The parents worked together as biochemists. Roger Kornberg earned his bachelors degree from Harvard University in 1967 and his PhD from Stanford University in 1972. He then became a Fellow at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the University of Cambridge, England. == Important studies == All heredity is controlled by genes. For the cells to make use of the information in the genes, a copy of part of the gene must be made. The copying is called transcription. Transcription makes an RNA copy of part of the DNA. The RNA is moved out of the cell nucleus, to ribosomes, where it does its work. This is called messenger RNA and it gives the amino acid sequence for protein production. This second process is called translation. It works in all eukaryotes, including all plants and animals. Kornberg worked with Aaron Klug and Francis Crick at the MRC in the 1970s. He discovered the nucleosome, a very important protein structure in chromosomes.Kornberg R.D. 1974. Chromatin structure: a repeating unit of histones and DNA. Science 184, 868-871. Nucleosomes form the basic repeating units of eukaryotic chromatin. This packs the large eukaryotic genomes into the nucleus and allows it to be controlled. Kornberg made the discovery that signals to the RNA are made by a complex of proteins that they called mediator.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 committee said, "the great complexity of eukaryotic organisms is 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".The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2006 After long effort, Kornberg was able to use X-ray crystallography to take 3D pictures of RNA molecules, lipids and proteins.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. 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".A family story about life 2006 In 1959, Roger Kornberg's 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 Kornberg's 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. Arthur and Roger Kornberg are the sixth father and son to win Nobel Prizes. == 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 * 2006: Nobel Prize in Chemistry * 2006: Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University