Roger D. Kornberg

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 bachelor's 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

Memberships
He was elected a foreign member of the Academia Europaea in 2012.

 References 

 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

Category:1947 births
Category:Living people
Category:American chemists
Category:American Nobel Prize winners
Category:Harvard University alumni
Category:Jewish American academics
Category:Jewish American scientists
Category:Jewish Nobel Prize winners
Category:Scientists from St. Louis, Missouri
Category:Stanford University faculty
Category:Educators from St. Louis, Missouri
Category:Members of Academia Europaea
Category:Nobel Prize in Chemistry winners