Roger D. Kornberg

Prof. Roger D. Kornberg is an American biochemist and Professor of Structural Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2006 “for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription” which explained the process by which genetic information from DNA is copied to RNA.

His research team isolated the proteins responsible for transcription and gene regulation, including the Mediator responsible for regulation of the process. His research also helps explain how disease can result when transcription goes awry and offers the potential for unlocking new therapeutic approaches.

Prof. Kornberg earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University. Following postdoctoral work at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, he joined the scientific staff there. He then became part of the faculty in the Department of Biological Chemistry at Harvard Medical School and later returned to Stanford as professor of structural biology. His honors include the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation’s Alfred P. Sloan Jr. Prize, Le Grand Prix Charles-Leopold Mayer from the Académie des Sciences in France, and the Welch Prize. Prof. Kornberg is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.