Stanford Report, June 15, 2005

Kornberg awarded GM's Sloan Prize

Studying one of life's most basic processes has earned Roger Kornberg, PhD, the General Motors Sloan Prize, a $250,000 award. The Sloan Prize honors a basic science contribution that helps explain cancer. To date, 108 scientists have received cancer research awards from GM, 13 of whom have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.

For the last 25 years or so, Kornberg, who is a professor of structural biology, and his collaborators have studied transcription—the process of copying DNA into RNA. When transcription goes awry, disease such as cancer can result. Kornberg's work helps elucidate the relationship between transcription and cancer and potentially offers new approaches for therapy.

His group discovered the nucleosome, a fundamental unit of DNA organization that plays a major role in transcription. They have also systematically figured out the complex molecular structure of RNA polymerase, the enzyme that reads the genetic instructions of DNA.

On its own, all the genetic information contained in DNA is silent, Kornberg has often said; RNA polymerase gives it a voice.

Kornberg will accept his award this evening in Washington, D.C.