Cell-Cell Signaling in Development

Thomas Kornberg is a member of the Cardiovascular Research Institute and Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics faculties at the University of California, San Francisco. His research has spanned DNA enzymology (the discovery of E. coli DNA polymerases 2 and 3), developmental and molecular genetics (cloning and functional characterizations of Drosophila genes including engrailed, cubitus interruptus, and hedgehog), and cell biology (discovery and functional characterization of cytonemes, the specialized filopodia that mediate dispersion and cell-cell exchange of morphogen signaling proteins). Research in his lab currently focuses on the mechanisms and processes that distribute patterning and positional information within cells and across tissues.