Nobel Prize in Chemistry · 2006
Roger D. Kornberg
He made the first atom-by-atom pictures of the machine cells use to read their genes, showing how DNA's silent code comes to life.
The Nobel citation: “for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription”
- Born
- April 24, 1947, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Affiliation at the time
- Stanford University, USA
Chemistry prize
2006
Awarded alone.
Age that year
59years
Born in 1947.
Sources cited
26
Fact-checked September 24, 2026.
- At 12 he watched his father, Arthur, receive the 1959 Nobel Prize in Stockholm. Forty-seven years later, Roger won the chemistry prize himself.
- In 1974, as a 27-year-old postdoc in Cambridge, he proposed the nucleosome: DNA wrapped around eight histone proteins, the basic unit of how chromosomes are packed.
- His first crystals of the gene-reading enzyme would not diffract X-rays at all. A faint yellow tinge revealed oxidation, so the team grew them in a sealed box under argon.
- Many doubted baker's yeast could teach us about human genes. His lab showed that the gene-reading machinery of yeast and human cells is nearly identical.
- By 2006 he had been a visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for about 20 years and was spending almost half of each year in Jerusalem.
The breakthrough
Picturing how cells read their genes (1974-2006)
Nearly every cell in your body carries the same DNA, but a liver cell and a nerve cell use different genes. To use a gene, a cell first copies it from DNA into a working copy called messenger RNA. This is called transcription. In every organism whose cells have a nucleus, from yeast to humans, one enzyme makes all of these messenger copies: RNA polymerase II. Think of DNA as a master cookbook that never leaves the library; the polymerase copies one recipe onto a card the kitchen can use. Kornberg spent about 20 years getting a picture of this copier. His team first built a working transcription system from baker's yeast, which took about a decade, and showed that it runs the same way as in human cells. Along the way they found Mediator, a relay of more than 20 proteins that carries on and off signals from a gene's switches to the polymerase. They then invented ways to crystallize the huge enzyme and, in 2001, used X-rays to map it atom by atom, both alone and caught in the act of copying. The pictures show DNA entering a cleft and unzipping, and RNA growing one letter at a time. Later pictures showed a moving loop that swings under each correct letter and triggers its addition. Years earlier, in 1974, he had worked out how DNA is packed: wrapped around sets of eight histone proteins, in units now called nucleosomes.[2],[3],[4],[5],[7],[16],[19],[20]
“RNA polymerase gives a voice to genetic information that, on its own, is silent.”
What it meant for humanity
Kornberg's work answered one of biology's central questions: how a cell reads its genes. Nearly every cell carries the same DNA; what makes a liver cell different from a neuron is which genes are copied, and when. His 1974 nucleosome model explained how DNA is packed, and his later finding that nucleosomes block the start of transcription helped launch the study of how packaging controls genes, which he called one of the most active fields in bioscience. His discovery of Mediator showed how gene switches talk to the copying machine, and his 2001 structures of RNA polymerase II let scientists watch that machine work, down to single atoms. Because transcription goes wrong in cancer, birth defects, heart disease and inflammation, these pictures give medical researchers a map of what can break. Faults in parts of Mediator have since been linked to inherited forms of intellectual disability and to colon cancer. His lab also showed how the poison of the death cap mushroom jams the polymerase. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted that understanding transcription is needed to realize the medical promise of stem cells. His methods spread through the people he trained, such as Patrick Cramer, now president of the Max Planck Society, and through Cocrystal Pharma, a company he co-founded that uses crystal structures to design antiviral drugs; its candidates were still in clinical trials in 2023. Nearly all of his research was paid for by the US National Institutes of Health, and he has called that public investment in basic knowledge one of humanity's finest achievements.
- His 1974 model of the nucleosome, DNA coiled around eight histone proteins, became a starting point for the study of how the packaging of DNA switches genes on and off.[2],[3],[16]
- In 2001 his team published the first atomic-level pictures of RNA polymerase II, alone and in the act of copying DNA. Phillip Sharp called it the largest, most complex non-repeating protein structure yet reported.[8],[10],[19],[20]
- His lab discovered Mediator, a relay of more than 20 proteins that passes signals from gene switches to the polymerase. Faults in its parts are linked to inherited intellectual disability and to colon cancer.[3],[5],[22]
- A 2002 structure from his lab showed that alpha-amanitin, the poison in death cap mushrooms, grips a flexible part of the polymerase thought to help move DNA forward, slowing copying to a crawl.[4],[5],[21]
- He showed that yeast and human cells read genes with nearly the same machinery, which made baker's yeast a powerful stand-in for studying how human genes are controlled.[3],[7],[9]
- Former postdoc Patrick Cramer, who helped solve the polymerase structure, became president of the Max Planck Society in 2023. Kornberg also co-founded Cocrystal Pharma to design antiviral drugs from crystal structures.[3],[23],[24]
Impact in numbers
Kornberg's legacy is knowledge rather than a product. He showed how DNA is packed into nucleosomes, found Mediator, the relay that lets gene switches control transcription, and mapped the cell's main gene-reading machine, RNA polymerase II, atom by atom. This knowledge underpins today's study of gene control, from how packaging turns genes on and off to stem-cell biology and diseases in which the wrong genes are switched on, such as some cancers. We make no numeric claim. No approved drug, test or technology can be traced mainly to his discoveries: Cocrystal Pharma, the antiviral company he co-founded around his lab's crystallography methods, still had its candidates in clinical trials in 2023, and turning knowledge of transcription into medicines depends on long chains of work by many laboratories. Any number we attached to his work would be invented.
Fundamental scienceHealth
No number is given here on purpose. Some contributions cannot be counted honestly, and we would rather describe them than invent a figure.
The double edge
No harm from Kornberg's research has been documented. It is basic science about how cells read genes, and we found no weapon, pollutant or misuse tied to it. The open questions concern credit. The nucleosome had more than one discoverer: Ada and Donald Olins published electron micrographs of chromatin 'beads on a string' in January 1974, four months before Kornberg's model appeared, and Kornberg himself wrote that earlier microscopy and enzyme-digestion studies by others fit his ideas. The 2006 prize named him alone, although he stressed that about 50 Stanford collaborators, plus others abroad, carried out the work over two decades, with lab members such as Patrick Cramer, David Bushnell and Avi Gnatt leading key steps.
- Minor
Shared discovery of the nucleosome
Ada and Donald Olins published images of chromatin 'nu bodies', beads on a string, in Science in January 1974, and in a 50th-anniversary essay they present that work as the start of the nucleosome's discovery. Kornberg's model of eight histones and about 200 DNA base pairs followed in May 1974; he acknowledged that earlier microscopy and digestion work fit his ideas.[2],[16],[17],[18]
- Minor
One name on a prize for team work
The chemistry prize went to Kornberg alone. In his banquet speech he said the work took more than 20 years and some 50 collaborators at Stanford, plus others around the world, including in Israel and Europe. His Nobel lecture credits lab members, including Cramer, Bushnell and Gnatt, with key steps toward the crystal structures.[3],[6]
Against the odds
Kornberg's own path shows how much changed for Jewish Americans in a single generation. He was born in St. Louis in 1947, two years after World War II, to two biochemists who had both met antisemitism. His father, Arthur, recalled being one of only two Jewish students admitted to the University of Rochester's medical school in 1937 under a quota, and said antisemitism was then rampant at American universities, Stanford included. His mother, Sylvy, faced obstacles as a woman and discrimination for being Jewish early in her career, in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Roger has said, and he has said that in today's world her talent would have brought her a very different career. By 1997 Arthur could say that antisemitism was completely foreign to his children, and no source records Roger facing it himself. The odds he faced were scientific. Building a yeast transcription system had defeated many laboratories for more than a decade, his group went years without publishable results, and he has said the structure problem looked impossible when they began, because the tools to solve it did not yet exist.
1937
Quota
Family context: his father, Arthur Kornberg, recalled being one of only two Jewish students admitted to the University of Rochester's medical school in 1937 under a quota.[15]
—
Discrimination
Family context: his mother, the biochemist Sylvy Kornberg, faced obstacles as a woman and discrimination for being Jewish early in her career, in the late 1930s and early 1940s, according to Roger, who said that today her talent would have led to a very different career.[14]
—
Discrimination
Wider context: Arthur Kornberg recalled that in his early career antisemitism was rampant at American universities, including UCLA, Stanford and Johns Hopkins. By 1997 he described it as completely foreign to his children.[15]
—
Other
Not a Jewish barrier: attempts to build a yeast system for gene transcription had failed in many labs for more than a decade. His group spent about ten years on it, with several years of no publishable results, and he said the structure problem looked impossible at first because the means did not yet exist.[2],[5],[8]
Jewish background
Both of Kornberg's parents were Jewish. His father, Nobel laureate Arthur Kornberg, grew up in an Orthodox, Yiddish-speaking Brooklyn home, and his mother, the biochemist Sylvy Levy, also grew up Orthodox. They raised their sons in a fairly secular home with a strong Jewish and pro-Israel identity. Roger married the Israeli-born scientist Yahli Lorch, his research partner. He has been a visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem since about 1986, received its honorary doctorate in 2001, and helped start a 2015 science conference in Israel for students from abroad.[2],[11],[12],[13]
Key dates
April 24, 1947
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, the first of three sons of the biochemists Arthur and Sylvy Kornberg.[1],[8],[14]
1959
His family moves to Stanford, and at 12 he travels to Stockholm to see his father receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[4],[14],[26]
1965
After working in Paul Berg's Stanford lab as a high-school student, publishes his first research paper, with his father, Berg and Gobind Khorana among the co-authors.[9]
1967
Graduates from Harvard with a degree in chemistry and begins graduate study in chemical physics at Stanford with Harden McConnell.[8],[9]
1972
Earns his Stanford PhD for discovering how fat molecules move in cell membranes, then joins Aaron Klug at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.[2],[8]
May 24, 1974
Proposes the nucleosome, a repeating unit of eight histone proteins and about 200 base pairs of DNA, in the journal Science.[2],[16]
1976
Becomes an assistant professor of biological chemistry at Harvard Medical School.[8],[9]
1978
Returns to Stanford as professor of structural biology; he later chairs the department from 1984 to 1992.[8]
1987
His student Neal Lue makes the first yeast extract that transcribes genes accurately, after other labs had failed for over a decade.[2],[3]
1994
His lab isolates Mediator, a complex of more than 20 proteins that relays signals from gene switches to RNA polymerase II.[2],[3]
2001
Publishes the atomic structure of RNA polymerase II, alone and in the act of transcription, in two papers in Science.[8],[19],[20]
October 4, 2006
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, unshared, for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription.[1],[4]
2007
His lab solves the X-ray structure of a gold nanoparticle of 102 gold atoms, an offshoot of his search for heavy-atom labels for imaging.[2],[25]
2015
Helps initiate the World Science Conference Israel, where students from around the world met Nobel and Wolf Prize laureates in Jerusalem.[12]
Sources
- 1.Roger D. Kornberg - Facts · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Prize Outreach)
- 2.Roger D. Kornberg - Biographical (from Les Prix Nobel 2006) · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Foundation), 2006
- 3.The molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription (Nobel Lecture, 8 December 2006) · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Foundation), 2006
- 4.Press release: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2006 · NobelPrize.org (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences), 2006
- 5.Popular information: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2006 · NobelPrize.org (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences), 2006
- 6.Roger D. Kornberg - Banquet speech, 10 December 2006 · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Foundation), 2006
- 7.Roger D. Kornberg - Interview (telephone interview transcript, 4 October 2006, with Adam Smith) · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Prize Outreach), 2006
- 8.One week, two Nobels: Roger Kornberg wins in chemistry, by Krista Conger (archived copy) · Stanford Report, Stanford University, 2006
- 9.The Decade-long Pursuit of a Reconstituted Yeast Transcription System: the Work of Roger D. Kornberg (JBC Classics, Kresge N, Simoni RD, Hill RL) · Journal of Biological Chemistry (via PubMed Central), 2009
- 10.Another Kornberg Nabs A Nobel, by Celia Henry Arnaud (C&EN 84(41)) · Chemical & Engineering News, American Chemical Society, 2006
- 11.Like father, like son for Jewish Nobelist, by Joe Eskenazi · Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 2006
- 12.International science students congregate at Hebrew University, by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich · The Jerusalem Post, 2015
- 13.Awards and Recognition (Nobel Prizes and honorary doctorates list) · The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- 14.Sylvy Kornberg: Biography of a Biochemist, by Diana Kwon (archived copy) · The Scientist, 2017
- 15.Biochemistry at Stanford, Biotechnology at DNAX (oral history with Arthur Kornberg conducted in 1997 by Sally Smith Hughes) · Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (via Internet Archive), 1998
- 16.Chromatin structure: a repeating unit of histones and DNA (Kornberg RD), Science 184:868-871 · Science (via PubMed), 1974
- 17.Spheroid chromatin units (v bodies) (Olins AL, Olins DE), Science 183:330-332 · Science (via PubMed), 1974
- 18.50th Anniversary of the Nucleosome Discovery: a Brief Essay (Olins AL, Olins D), Postepy Biochemii 70(1):39-40 · Postepy Biochemii (Polish Biochemical Society), 2024
- 19.Structural basis of transcription: RNA polymerase II at 2.8 angstrom resolution (Cramer P, Bushnell DA, Kornberg RD), Science 292:1863-1876 · Science (via PubMed), 2001
- 20.Structural basis of transcription: an RNA polymerase II elongation complex at 3.3 A resolution (Gnatt AL, Cramer P, Fu J, Bushnell DA, Kornberg RD), Science 292:1876-1882 · Science (via PubMed), 2001
- 21.Structural basis of transcription: alpha-amanitin-RNA polymerase II cocrystal at 2.8 A resolution (Bushnell DA, Cramer P, Kornberg RD), PNAS 99(3):1218-1222 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (via PubMed Central), 2002
- 22.Mediator and human disease (Spaeth JM, Kim NH, Boyer TG), Semin Cell Dev Biol 22(7):776-787 · Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology (via PubMed Central), 2011
- 23.Seattle company founded by Nobel Prize winner plans human tests for experimental COVID-19 drug, by Charlotte Schubert · GeekWire, 2023
- 24.President: Patrick Cramer · Max Planck Society
- 25.Structure of a thiol monolayer-protected gold nanoparticle at 1.1 A resolution (Jadzinsky PD, Calero G, Ackerson CJ, Bushnell DA, Kornberg RD), Science 318:430-433 · Science (via PubMed), 2007
- 26.The Arthur Kornberg Papers: Biographical Overview · US National Library of Medicine, Profiles in Science
Fact-checked on September 24, 2026 by a separate AI fact-checking pass that re-opened the sources, with 5 corrections made. How we check
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