Stanford's Kornberg wins 2006 chemistry Nobel

Reuters: American Roger Kornberg won the 2006 Nobel prize for chemistry on October 4 for describing the essential process of gene copying in cells, research that can give insight into illnesses such as cancer and heart disease.

Kornberg's father, Arthur, shared the 1959 Nobel medicine prize with Severo Ochoa for studies of how genetic information is transferred from one DNA molecule to another. Roger Kornberg said he remembered traveling to Stockholm with his father for the Nobel Prize award ceremonies. [The Kornberg's are the SIXTH father/son Nobel team.]

AP noted: Since 2000, Kornberg has produced actual pictures of messenger RNA molecules being created, a process that resembles building a chain link by link. The images are so detailed that individual atoms can be distinguished.

"In an ingenious manner Kornberg has managed to freeze the construction process of RNA half-way through," the Nobel committee said. That let him capture the process of transcription in full flow, which is "truly revolutionary," the committee said.

[The 2006 Nobel in medicine concerned interference RNA.]