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American Wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Genetic Studies
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?r=279&c=640170&l=1009&ctl=143C839:A6F02AD83191E1601D6423CD857AD62D9574F7DCC14957C0 Roger Kornberg
carried on his father's studies of how cells copy genetic information
to be used by body





Roger Kornberg (file photo)American Roger Kornberg has won this year's
Nobel Prize for Chemistry, carrying on his father's studies of how
cells copy genetic information to be used by the body.

The Nobel committee says the 59-year-old researcher's discoveries
advanced the work of his father, Arthur Kornberg, who won the Nobel
Prize for physiology and medicine 47 years ago.

Kornberg senior's pioneering work described how genetic information
passes from a mother cell to its daughters, the Royal Swedish Academy
of Sciences in Stockholm says, and his son extended those discoveries
to the molecular level.

The award, announced this Wednesday morning in Sweden, cited Roger
Kornberg's studies of "the molecular basis of eukaryotic
transcription."

Transcription is the process of copying genetic information so it can
be transferred as cells multiply and build a new organism. Eukaryotes
include any organism whose cells have a well-defined nucleus, from
mammals to yeast.

Kornberg's studies produced the first detailed description of how this
process works, and the academy said he created a picture of how the
transfer of information stored in genes takes place between individual
molecules.

Understanding how the gene-transfer process operates is a significant
advance for medical researchers studying many human illnesses,
including cancer and heart disease.

The academy says Kornberg's work is exactly the kind of important
discovery that founder Alfred Nobel had in mind when he created the
awards.

Kornberg will receive $1.3 million at a ceremony in Stockholm on
December 10. He is a professor at Stanford University in California.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.


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