Nobel Prize Winner to lecture and celebrate Lucia at Umeå University
NEWS
The 2006 Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry, Professor Roger D. Kornberg, will hold his first public lecture – following the Nobel Prize Award ceremonies – at Umeå University. The lecture will take place on December 13th at 13:30 at Aula Nordica.
A press conference will be held at Universitetsklubben (one floor above Aula Nordica in Universum) at 14:45, after the lecture. Roger D. Kornberg, Professor at Stanford University in California, USA, is an Honorary Doctor recipient from Umeå University. His lecture will be the first in a series of KBC seminars at Umeå University.
KBC is the Chemical-Biological Centre on campus. Kornberg was appointed as Honorary Doctor at the Faculty of Medicine in 2003 for his detailed collaboration with researchers within the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics at Umeå University.
Kornberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his studies of “the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription”. This will also be the subject of his upcoming lecture.
Kornberg has in his research described how the active parts of genetic information, known as genes, are copied to RNA in humans, plants and ordinary yeast. In order for the organism to make use of the information stored in the genes, a copy must first be made and “transferred” from DNA to RNA. This copying process is called transcription and Kornberg was the first to produce a detailed depiction of transcription at a molecular level.
The transcription process is involved in many human illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and various types of inflammation. It also has a significant importance within stem cell research.
Stefan Björklund, Professor of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, is one of the Umeå researchers that has collaborated with Kornberg. Björklund spent two years with Kornberg’s research group at Stanford University as a post-doctorate.
The Nobel Prize winner also has worked together with Erik Johansson at the same department, as well as several others. Kornberg has been involved in many projects at the department over the last several years. – I have been impressed through my visits to Umeå by the excellence and vitality of the research enterprise at the university. My collaboration with Professor Björklund has been very productive. Together, we discovered the key to a giant multi-protein complex known as Mediator, says Roger D. Kornberg.
Photo of Kornberg available at: www.umu.se/medfak/aktuellt/bilder/index.html
Contact Information:
Professor Stefan Björklund Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics Phone: +46 (0)90-786 67 88 Mobile: +46 (0)90-216 28 90 E-mail: stefan.bjorklund@medchem.umu.se
Erik Johansson, Research Engineer Phone: +46 (0)90-786 66 38 Mobile: +46 (0)73-620 50 61 E-mail: erik.johansson@medchem.umu.se
