¹School of Medicine, Stanford University, Fairchild D 123, Stanford, CA 94305-5126, USA

Correspondence: G Melino, Cell death and Differentiation, Rome Editorial Office, D26, University Rome Tor Vergata, via Montpellier 1, 00133-Rome, Italy. E-mail: cell.death.differ@uniroma2.it
Tel.: +39-06 2042 7299; Fax: +39-06 2042 7290; Cell Death and Differentiation Rome office, e-mail: cell.death.differ@uniroma2.it.

Abstract

Thanks to the Nobel Foundation for permission to publish this Lecture (Copyright^© The Nobel Foundation 2006). We report here the Nobel Lecture delivered by Professor RD Kornberg describing his research in the understanding of transcription in eucaryotes. The amazing work by Professor Kornberg goes from the discovery of the nucleosome to the structural and functional studies of pol II transcription complexes. His research sheds light on fundamental molecular biology problems such as transcription initiation, fidelity of transcription, RNA release at the end of transcription, and many more. This is a beautiful report on how structural and functional studies can be combined to really understand in an accurate and detailed way how proteins combine in huge molecular complexes to regulate one of the most important cellular processes: gene transcription.