AT THE age of 12, Roger Kornberg travelled to Stockholm from his home in the United States to see his father, Arthur, receive the 1959 Nobel Prize for Medicine.

He will make the same trip in December, 47 years on, after he was named yesterday as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Dr Kornberg, 59, of Stanford University School of Medicine in California, was awarded the honour for his work showing how the instructions encoded in genes are used to make proteins. This process, known as transcription, is fundamental to all forms of life.

Dr Kornberg explained for the first time how transcription works at a molecular level in eukaryotes — the group of organisms whose cells have a nucleus, which includes human beings and other mammals.

“Understanding of how transcription works has a fundamental medical importance,” the Nobel committee said.

“Disturbances in the process are involved in many human illnesses such as cancer.”

Dr Kornberg’s work builds on that of his father, who was honoured for insights into how genetic information is transferred between DNA molecules. The prize is worth £724,000.

FAMILY TIES

Brothers Jan and Nikolaas Tinbergen won prizes in economics and medicine respectively

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