Structural Biologist to Receive Welch Award in Chemistry

Summary

The Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry for 2001 will be given to Professor Roger Kornberg of Stanford University. He is being honored for his research into the structure of the proteins and molecular machines that carry out the conversion of the genetic code into the signals to make specific proteins in living cells. Two cellular components responsible for translating gene sequences have been the major focus of his research: the nucleosome, which contains the cell’s chromosomes, and RNA polymerase, which transcribes the genetic information in the DNA sequence into messenger RNA to synthesize proteins. Many of the structural studies have been carried out at the Department of Energy synchrotron light sources, especially at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL). Two new papers from the Kornberg group on RNA polymerase II reporting on structures determined at SSRL have just been published in Science. This award is presented annually by the Robert A Welch Foundation of Houston, Texas, in recognition of lifetime accomplishments in the chemical sciences and includes an honorarium of $300,000.