Allis Kornberg
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Ada Doisy Lecturers 2006 Ada Doisy Lectures 1970-71 Charles Huggins* and Elwood V. Jensen 2007 in BIOCHEMISTRY 1972-73 Paul Berg* and Walter Gilbert* Sponsored by the Department of Biochemistry • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1973-74 Saul Roseman and Bruce Ames 1974-75 Arthur Kornberg* and Osamu Hayaishi Dr. Roger 1976-77 Luis F. Leloir* 1977-78 Albert L. Lehninger and Efraim Racker Kornberg Department of Biochemistry 1978-79 Donald D. Brown and Herbert Boyer Stanford School of Medicine 1979-80 Charles Yanofsky Stanford, California 1980-81 Leroy E. Hood 1983-84 Joseph L. Goldstein* and Michael S. Brown* 1984-85 Joan Steitz and Phillip Sharp* The Molecular Basis of 1985-86 Stephen J. Benkovic and Jeremy R. Knowles Eukaryotic Transcription 1986-87 Tom Maniatis and Mark Ptashne 1988-89 J. Michael Bishop* and Harold E. Varmus* 1989-90 Kurt Wüthrich* 4:00 p.m. Thursday, April 5, 2007 1990-91 Edmond H. Fischer* and Edwin G. Krebs* Medical Sciences Auditorium 1993-94 Bert W. O’Malley 1994-95 Earl W. Davie and John W. Suttie 1995-96 Richard J. Roberts* Dr. C. David 1996-97 Ronald M. Evans 1998-99 Elizabeth H. Blackburn Allis 1999-2000 Carl R. Woese† and Norman R. Pace Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology The Rockefeller University 2000-01 Willem P. C. Stemmer and Ronald W. Davis New York, New York 2001-02 Janos K. Lanyi and Sir John E. Walker* 2002-03 Peter B. Moore and Harry F. Noller 2003-04 Elizabeth A. Craig and Susan L. Lindquist Beyond the Double Helix: 2004-05 Peter C. Agre* and Douglas C. Rees Reading and Writing 2005-06 Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian K. Kobilka the “Histone Code” * Nobel Laureate 12:00 noon † Friday, April 6, 2007 Crafoord Prize Medical Sciences Auditorium Professor Roger Kornberg obtained a B.S. in chemistry from Harvard Professor David Allis received his B.S., summa cum laude, in biology University in 1967, and his Ph. D., from Stanford University in 1972. from the University of Cincinnati, in 1973, with the intention of going During a three year period at the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology, in to medical school. However, a research experience in his senior year Cambridge, England, he formulated the modern picture of chromatin, the convinced him to pursue a research career and he attended Indiana now familiar beads-on-a-string concept for packaging eukaryotic DNA with University for graduate studies in developmental biology, receiving his histones to form nucleosomes. Returning to the U.S. in 1976, Dr. Kornberg Ph. D. in 1978. His post-doctoral work on chromatin, at the University of accepted an Assistant Professorship at Harvard Medical School and in Rochester, was a major change in his research direction, and led to his first 1978 was appointed Professor of Structural Biology at Stanford University. academic position at Baylor College of Medicine, where he remained for Dr. Kornberg’s work at Stanford has persistently addressed the complex 10 years. He subsequently served on the faculty at Syracuse University, problem of transcription and transcriptional regulation in eukaryotes, the University of Rochester, and the University of Virginia, and he is now where higher-order structures, including nucleosomes, are an important at the Rockefeller University, where he is Head of the Laboratory for component of transcriptional control. Among the many signal advances Chromatin Biology. Professor Allis’s discovery of the first transcription- made in this area by the Kornberg lab, a major breakthrough came with the associated histone acetyltransferase, followed shortly afterwards discovery of the complex called Mediator, a central effector in transmission by the discovery of a histone deactylase enzyme, revolutionized our of gene regulatory signals to the RNA polymerase machinery. For many understanding of transcriptional regulation by establishing the basis for years Professor Kornberg also pursued the structure of RNA polymerase, a reversible modification system that marks regions of the chromatin for initially at relatively low resolution. However, in 2001, high quality, x- “remodeling”. Remodeling makes the specified regions of DNA accessible ray diffracting crystals provided a structure of RNA polymerase at 2.8Å or inaccessible to transcription machinery, thereby turning genes on resolution, and other complexes have followed since. This has opened a or off. This is the molecular basis of differentiation and development. new era of detailed analysis of the molecular mechanisms of nucleic acid How the instructions of transcriptional regulation are encoded in the synthesis and transcriptional regulation and fidelity. Professor Kornberg has pattern of histone modifications - the “histone code” – is one of the received very many awards and recognitions for his work, including election central puzzles of modern biology, and Professor Allis’s work continues to the National Academy of Sciences in 1993, the Gairdner International to lead the field. His research contributions have been widely recognized Award in 2000, the Grand Prix Charles-Leopold Mayer, from the French by many national and international honors and awards, including the Academy of Sciences, in 2002, and the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2006. 2003 Massry Prize in Chromatin and Transcription, which he shared with His father, Arthur Kornberg, who was a Doisy Lecturer in 1975, received Roger Kornberg and Michael Grunstein, and the Gairdner International the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1959 for his identification and Award in 2007. Professor Allis was elected to membership of the National isolation of the first enzyme capable of synthesizing DNA. The Kornbergs Academy of Sciences in 2005. are the sixth father and son to win Nobel prizes. T h e A d a D o i s y M e m o r i a l Dam of Denmark. Dr. Doisy was awarded the Illinois Achievement Award Lectures were established by the by the University of Illinois Alumni Association in 1958, and received an late Dr. Edward A. Doisy in honor honorary degree from the University of Illinois in 1960. of his mother Ada Doisy, whom he credited with instilling his love and reverence for learning and inquiry. Dr. The Ada Doisy Lectures are the most distinguished lectureship in the Doisy received his Bachelor’s degree in 1914 and his Master’s degree in Department of Biochemistry. Doisy Lecturers have been recognized by 1916 from the University of Illinois; he received his Ph.D. from Harvard sixteen Nobel Prizes and one Craaford Prize, an equivalent to the Nobel University in 1920. Dr. Doisy was on the faculty at Washington University Prize for areas not covered by it. Eleven of these awards were announced School of Medicine from 1920 to 1924. In 1924 he moved to the St. Louis after invitation as Doisy Lecturers. University School of Medicine, to assume the headship of the Department of Biochemistry. He remained Head until his retirement in 1965. Among many contributions to natural products and nutritional chemistry, Dr. Doisy isolated and synthesized vitamin K, and for this work he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1943, shared with Henrik .