Robert Tjian (; born 1949) is a Hong Kong-born American biochemist best known for his work on

eukaryotic transcription Eukaryotic transcription is the elaborate process that eukaryotic cells use to copy genetic information stored in DNA into units of transportable complementary RNA replica. Gene transcription occurs in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. ...

. He is currently Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). On April 1, 2009, Tjian became the President of

HHMI The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fi ...

. On August 4, 2015, he announced that he would step down as President at the end of 2016.

Biography

Tjian was born in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

in 1949. His father Tjian Tze-Ning (Qian Zining; 錢子寧), a native of

Shaoxing Shaoxing (; ) is a prefecture-level city on the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay in northeastern Zhejiang province, China. It was formerly known as Kuaiji and Shanyin and abbreviated in Chinese as (''Yuè'') from the area's former inhabitant ...

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...

, was a famous

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

and pioneer of China's modern

paper industry The pulp and paper industry comprises companies that use wood as raw material and produce pulp, paper, paperboard and other cellulose-based products. Manufacturing process The pulp is fed to a paper machine where it is formed as a paper web a ...

. In April 1949, Tjian's family and business all moved to Hong Kong; in 1950 moved to

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

; and later settled in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, the United States. Tjian received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the

in 1971 and a Ph.D. degree from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1976. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory with

James D. Watson James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Watson, Crick and ...

for three years before returning to the University of California in 1979 when he was appointed Assistant Professor of Biochemistry. In 2008, Tjian joined the

Board of Director A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

s of the

Lasker Foundation The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1945 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, which was f ...

. In 1978, Tjian found the first protein of a virus which can regulate gene expression in mammalian cells, the SV40 large T antigen. He showed that "activator" proteins, which previously had been shown to play crucial roles in regulating gene expression in simple organisms, also exist in higher organisms. He and his colleagues further discovered several gene-regulatory proteins. Tjian is also notable in drug-target studies and their applications. Tjian developed some highly efficient and sensitive techniques to detect cellular quantities such as proteins. In 1989, Tjian, together with two colleagues

David Goeddel David V. Goeddel (born 1951) is an American molecular biologist who, employed at the time by Genentech, successfully used genetic engineering to coax bacteria into creating synthetic human insulin, human growth hormone, and human tissue plasmino ...

(father of MLB players Erik and

Tyler Goeddel Tyler David Goeddel (born October 20, 1992) is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for one season with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2016. Career Tampa Bay Rays Goeddel attended St. Fra ...

) and Steve McKnight, co-founded Tularik Inc., a biotechnology company based in

South San Francisco, California South San Francisco is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The city is colloquially known as "South City". The population was 66,105 at the 2020 census. ...

. Tularik was acquired by

Amgen Amgen Inc. (formerly Applied Molecular Genetics Inc.) is an American multinational biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. One of the world's largest independent biotechnology companies, Amgen was established in T ...

for $1.3 billion in 2004. In 2020, Tjian collaborated with

Jennifer Doudna Jennifer Anne Doudna (; born February 19, 1964) is an American biochemist who has done pioneering work in CRISPR gene editing, and made other fundamental contributions in biochemistry and genetics. Doudna was one of the first women to share a ...

and other UC Berkeley colleagues on a response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Tjian is also a member of the

USA Science and Engineering Festival The USA Science & Engineering Festival is a bi-annual science festival held in Washington, D.C. Founded in 2010 by Larry Bock, the festival is the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines in the ...

's Advisory Board.

Awards and honors

* Elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

(2009) *

Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry The Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry, formerly known as the Paul-Lewis Award in Enzyme Chemistry was established in 1945. Consisting of a gold medal and honorarium, its purpose is to stimulate fundamental research in enzyme chemistry by scientists ...

(1983) * Cancer Research Award, Milken Family Medical Foundation (1988) * Elected to the Academia Sinica,

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

(1990) * National Academy of Sciences Monsanto Award for Molecular Biology (1991) * Elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1991) * California Scientist of the Year (1994) * Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Science (1995) * Monsanto Award *

Passano Award The Passano Foundation, established in 1945, provides an annual award to a research scientist whose work – done in the United States – is thought to have immediate practical benefits. Many Passano laureates have subsequently won the Nobel Priz ...

(1995) * Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1997) *

Alfred P. Sloan Jr. Prize The Alfred P. Sloan Jr. Prize was a $250,000 award given by the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation for outstanding oncological research. The prize was awarded annually from 1979 to 2005. Of the winners, 15 out of 37 have gone on to win eith ...

, from General Motors Cancer Research Foundation (1999) *

Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize The Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology or Biochemistry is an annual prize awarded by Columbia University to a researcher or group of researchers who have made an outstanding contribution in basic research in the fields of biology or biochemist ...

(

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

) (1999) * MERIT Award, from

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

(2004) *

Grand Prix Charles-Leopold Mayer The Grand Prix Charles-Léopold Mayer (Charles-Léopold Mayer Prize) is awarded annually by the Académie des Sciences (French Academy of Sciences) de l'Institut de France (the French Institute) to researchers who have performed outstanding work in ...

(2010) * Glenn T. Seaborg Medal (2010) *Fiat Lux Faculty Award from the

(2021)

References

External links

Research Summary, UC Berkeley

Robert Tjian's Seminar: "The Molecular Biology of Gene Regulation"

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tjian, Robert 1949 births Living people American biochemists American medical researchers American nonprofit chief executives Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Hong Kong emigrants to the United States Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences University of California, Berkeley faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni Harvard Medical School alumni American people of Chinese descent Chinese biochemists Hong Kong scientists