Press Statement from NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D.
NIH Grantee Wins 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
for Discovering How Genes Produce Proteins The 2006
Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to long-time NIH grantee, Roger
D. Kornberg, Ph.D., of the Stanford University School of Medicine
for his studies of how genetic information is transcribed into RNA,
which is translated to make proteins, molecules essential to life.
NIH is proud that its sustained support of this research led to
the findings honored in today’s Nobel Prize. The NIH components
that funded the prize-winning scientist are the National Institute
of General Medical Sciences, the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, and the National Cancer Institute. Over 37
years, NIH has provided more than $24 million to support the research
of Kornberg.
If the transcription process stops, genetic information is no longer
transferred. “Illnesses like cancer, heart disease, and various
other kinds of inflammation are linked to disturbances in the transcription
process,” said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. “Understanding
this process in more detail may provide researchers with the needed
tools to develop new treatments for diseases.”
“Through decades of elegant, state-of-the art studies in
biochemistry and structural biology, Roger Kornberg has revealed
the mechanism underlying how cells transcribe genetic information,”
said Jeremy M. Berg, Ph.D., director of the NIGMS, which has funded
Kornberg's research since 1979. “This knowledge sheds light
on a fundamental process that is key to health and disease. The
achievement also demonstrates the power of innovative approaches
to probe the many complicated molecular assemblies essential to
life.”
“The research honored by this Nobel Prize offers an exquisitely
detailed picture of a fundamental biological process intrinsic to
human life. This knowledge gives medical researchers a springboard
from which they can investigate and better understand many illnesses
connected to disruptions in this basic life process,” says
NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.
“I am most pleased that Roger Kornberg has been recognized
for his critical contributions to our understanding of the fundamental
process of transcription,” said John E. Niederhuber, M.D.,
director of the National Cancer Institute and a former professor
at the Stanford School of Medicine. “Cancer is a disease of
genetic alterations, and Roger’s research is essential to
the development of a new era of highly targeted cancer therapy.”
Kornberg’s father, Arthur Kornberg, was also an NIH grantee
and shared the 1959 Nobel Prize in medicine for studies of how genetic
information is transferred from one DNA molecule to another. The
Kornbergs are the eighth parent-child pair to win Nobel Prizes.
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involves
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Additional information is available at http://www.nih.gov/icd/od/.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical
Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a
component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary
federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational
medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for
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visit www.nih.gov.
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