Thomas Kornberg received his BA in Biology and his PhD in Biochemistry both from Columbia University. As a graduate student, Kornberg identified and purified E. coli DNA polymerase II and III for the first time. Kornberg went on to do post-doctoral studies at Princeton and the MRC labs at Cambridge.
In 1978, Kornberg joined the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco where he is now Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the Cardiovascular Research Institute. His lab uses the development of the Drosophila wing disc as a model system to study the mechanisms by which cells communicate over long distances.
While Kornberg was a undergraduate biology student, he also studied cello at the renowned Juilliard School. Kornberg continues to play cello and you can hear him in his iBioMagazine video in this video.
