Robert G. Roeder (born June 3, 1942, in Boonville, Indiana, United States) is an American biochemist. He is known as a pioneer scientist in eukaryotic transcription. He discovered three distinct nuclear RNA polymerases in 1969 [1] and characterized many proteins involved in the regulation of transcription, including basic transcription factors and the first mammalian gene-specific activator over five decades of research.[2] He is the recipient of the Gairdner Foundation International Award in 2000, the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 2003, and the Kyoto Prize in 2021. He currently serves as Arnold and Mabel Beckman Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Biochemical and Molecular Biology at The Rockefeller University.
Robert G. Roeder | |
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Born | Robert Gayle Roeder June 3, 1942 Boonville, Indiana, United States |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | University of Washington, University of Illinois, Wabash College |
Known for | |
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Scientific career | |
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Institutions | Washington University in St. Louis Rockefeller University |
Thesis | Multiple RNA Polymerases and RNA Synthesis in Eukaryotic Systems (1969) |
Doctoral advisor | William J. Rutter |
Other academic advisors | Donald D. Brown |
Doctoral students |
Roeder was born in Boonville, Indiana, US in 1942. He received his B.A. summa cum laude in chemistry from Wabash College in 1964 and his M.S. in chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1965. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1969 from the University of Washington, Seattle, where he worked with William J. Rutter. He did postdoctoral work with Donald D. Brown at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, in Baltimore, from 1969 to 1971. He was a member of the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis from 1971 to 1982, when he joined The Rockefeller University. In 1985, he was named Arnold and Mabel Beckman Professor. He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1988 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1995, and a foreign associate member of the European Molecular Biology Organization in 2003.
The Roeder Laboratory has trained hundreds of students and postdoctoral fellows, many of whom hold independent positions in prominent biomedical research institutions, including Richard A. Bernstein (Northwestern University), Robert B. Darnell (Rockefeller University and HHMI), Beverly M. Emerson (Salk Institute for Biological Studies), Michael R. Green (University of Massachusetts Medical School and HHMI), Wei Gu (Columbia University), Nathaniel Heintz (Rockefeller University and HHMI), Andrew B. Lassar (Harvard Medical School), Carl S. Parker (California Institute of Technology), Ron Prywes (Columbia University), Danny Reinberg (New York University School of Medicine and HHMI), Hazel L. Sive (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Whitehead Institute) and Jerry Workman (Stowers Institute for Medical Research).[37]