Email this pageGenetics Day 2009 pictures
21st Annual Genetics Day
Friday, May 8, 2009
University of Rochester Medical Center
(click here for schedule)
7th Annual Fred Sherman Lecture, Dr. Robert Tjian
"Transcriptional Mechanisms Regulating
Differentiation and Stem Cell Pluripotency"
The regulation of gene expression is one of the most fundamental processes in biology. Few scientists have
contributed more to our understanding of this process than Dr. Robert Tjian.
Research by Dr. Tjian has established many paradigms that permeate today’s textbooks and inform
research in a broad swath of the life sciences. Among other discoveries, he showed that transforming viral
proteins and oncogene products function as transcription factors. He defined the first promoter specific
cellular transcription factors. Many important insights into the mechanisms of transcription activation were
contributed by Tjian’s work. Over the years the Tjian lab has applied cutting edge research technologies to
understand transcription regulation at all levels. This research has taken Tjian from atomic structural studies
to the function of transcription factors at the cell and organism level. Important current research interests, in
addition to his long standing curiosity of the principal biochemistry of gene activation, include the
transcriptional regulation of stem cell function, and the regulatory causes for neurodegeneration.
Robert Tjian is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and a Howard Hughes investigator, at
the Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology of UC Berkeley. He was a founding member of the
successful Biotech Company Tularik. He serves as director of the Berkeley Stem Cell Center and as faculty
director of the Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences. He is a member of the National
Academy of Sciences and has received many awards honoring his scientific contributions, including the
Alfred P. Sloan Prize from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation and the Louisa Gross Horwitz
Prize from Columbia University. He was named California Scientist of the Year in 1994. In 2009, Dr. Tjian
replaced Thomas R. Cech as President of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Contact Us
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University of Rochester
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Katie Scoville
