With the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Stanford University professor Roger Kornberg, the Americans have swept the Nobel science prizes for the first time since 1983 and just as importantly the Bay Area represented winners for all three prizes.
Stanford University professor Roger Kornberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry today for his research into how information stored in genes is copied and used to construct an organism.
Kornberg's Nobel Prize comes 47 years after his father received the coveted award for his work in medicine. Kornberg is the third Bay Area scientist to win a Nobel Prize this week, and will receive about $1.3 million for the honor.
Kornberg, 59, was honored for his work studying transcription, the process of copying information stored in genes and transferring them outside the cells, where proteins use the copy to actually create the organism. His work could help scientists understand fatal illnesses including cancer and heart disease and move stem cell research forward, according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
It has been a great week to be a Bay Area science junkie.
Photo via Creative Commons Search, credit ereneta
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