Mark Abramson — Journalist and Writer

Obama Coverage and Nobel Prize Winner Clips

Obama visits wounded troops at Landstuhl — http://www.stripes.com/news/obama-visits-wounded-troops-at-landstuhl-1.92280

 

Stanford scientist wins Nobel Prize

Work in genetics earns him prestigious award

Palo Alto Daily News

October 3, 2006

Mark Abramson

A Stanford University professor and Sunnyvale native has won the Nobel Prize in medicine along with a colleague for groundbreaking research in a science that may be used to treat the flu, heart disease and potentially HIV and cancer.

Stanford University School of Medicine pathology and genetics professor Andrew Fire was notified during a 2 a.m. Monday wake-up call that he received the award in medicine by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet for his discoveries in RNA interference (RNAi) in animals. The science can be used to turn off a specific gene that cause diseases and other health hazards, including HIV, cancer and high cholesterol.

Fire, 47, shares the honor and $1.4 million prize with Craig Mello, 45, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Mass. Fire, who was raised in Sunnyvale and born at Stanford Hospital, said he has not thought about how he will spend his share.

“At first, of course, I couldn’t believe it. I could be dreaming or it could be a mistake or something like that – but I guess it’s not,” Fire said about the honor.

“This is an extraordinary achievement for Andy Fire and Craig Mello, for science and for Stanford,” said Philip Pizzo, dean of Stanford’s School of Medicine. “Such discoveries not only elucidate new understanding of human biology, but can unfold into new directions that can potentially translate into discoveries of new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for a variety of human disorders.”

Fire and Mello’s work using roundworms was first published in the journal Nature in 1998. Fire said Monday that their work began in the 1980s, with the first big breakthrough coming in the summer of 1997.

“It was a tapestry that was coming together,” he said about the research.

“Their discovery clarified many confusing and contradictory experimental observations and revealed a natural mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information,” the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, wrote in Monday’s announcement. “This heralded the start of a new research field.”

Fire said he envisions possible human applications, including therapies and possibly for developing medications. Since Mello and Fire’s team of scientists discovered that by injecting a double-stranded version of messenger RNA (mRNA) into roundworms, other researchers have shown the same technique can be used to silence genes in almost every type of animal cell, except yeast, a Stanford Universtity School of Medicine press release stated. RNAi silences a gene by preventing it from producing protein.

Since Fire and Mello’s discovery, RNAi treatments have been tested on animals for many diseases, including HIV, cancer and hepatitis. And plans are in the works to use RNAi for treating influenza, cardiovascular diseases and endocrine disorders.

“It was sort of pie in the sky: ‘Does it work elsewhere?'” Fire said of the discovery. “We dreamed of it being used as a therapeutic tool. I’ve been a student of this, watching my colleagues do more research.”

Bay City News contributed to this article.

E-mail Mark Abramson at mabramson@dailynewsgroup.com

 

It’s all in the genes

Stanford scientist wins Nobel Prize

Palo Alto Daily News

October 5, 2006

Mark Abramson

Roger Kornberg, a scientist at Stanford’s School of Medicine, on Wednesday became the second researcher there this week to win a Nobel Prize. He won the prestigious honor in chemistry, 47 years after his father, Arthur Kornberg, won a Nobel Prize in the category of physiology or medicine for his study of DNA.

Roger Kornberg, 59, won this year’s prize and $1.4 million for his work in understanding how DNA is converted into RNA, a process known as transcription. His colleague, Stanford researcher Andrew Fire, won the Nobel Prize in the category of physiology or medicine Monday for his discoveries in RNA interference in animals, which is a process for silencing genes that can cause diseases.

“It’s not something you plan on. It’s not something that motivates you to do your work,” Kornberg said during a press conference. “It was always unlikely, and therefore when I heard, I was greatly surprised.”

He continued, “Chemistry and medicine have both progressed to the point where they may be indistinguishable. I view our work as primarily chemical. To my way of thinking it was more appropriate this particular prize be awarded in chemistry rather than medicine.”

The elder Kornberg said his son’s Nobel Prize was long overdue.

“I’m disappointed that it is so long in coming,” Arthur Kornberg said. “I have been one of Roger’s great fans for a long time.”

Arthur Kornberg said he was unsure what impact his love of science had in encouraging his son, but he is definitely looking forward to celebrating his son’s honor in Sweden.

“There is not any party given that matches the one the Nobel Prize group puts on,” said Arthur Kornberg. “It’s a party that beats all. I’m eager to be at a Nobel Prize party, especially this one (honoring Roger Kornberg and other winners).”

Winning the Nobel Prize forced Kornberg to catch a later flight to Pittsburgh Wednesday to accept the Dickson Prize in Medicine from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine and its $50,000 award. He also won the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from the Columbia University School of Medicine Wednesday for his work in gene transcription.

According to a Stanford press release, Kornberg published his findings in 2001 of the first molecular snapshot of the protein machinery responsible for transcription – RNA polymerase – in action. That helped explain how cells express all the information in the human genome, and how that can sometimes go awry, causing cancer, birth defects and other disorders.

Kornberg said the research began about 30 years ago when he was a Stanford graduate student and resumed when he returned to the university 10 years later. Some of the work was done at the Stanford Linear Accelerator, using X-rays to examine molecules.

Kornberg said he does not know what medical benefits his research on RNA will have, but it could be a while.

“It was a technical tour de force,” said Joseph Puglisi, professor and department chair of the school of medicine’s department of structural biology. “Like other great scientists, Roger doesn’t quit. He’s stubborn. A lot of scientists would have given up after five years.”

E-mail Mark Abramson at mabramson@dailynewsgroup.com.