Robert Tjian is a Hong Kong-born American biochemist best known for his work on eukaryotic transcription.
11 Facts About Robert Tjian
1.
2.
Robert Tjian is currently professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of California, Berkeley and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
3.
Robert Tjian's father Tjian Tze-Ning, a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, was a famous capitalist in Shanghai and pioneer of China's modern paper industry.
4.
Robert Tjian received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1971 and a Ph.
5.
Robert Tjian was a postdoctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory with James D Watson for three years before returning to the University of California in 1979 when he was appointed assistant professor of biochemistry.
6.
In 2008, Robert Tjian joined the Board of Directors of the Lasker Foundation.
7.
In 1978, Robert Tjian found the first protein of a virus which can regulate gene expression in mammalian cells, the SV40 large T antigen.
8.
Robert Tjian showed that "activator" proteins, which previously had been shown to play crucial roles in regulating gene expression in simple organisms, exist in higher organisms.
9.
Robert Tjian developed some highly efficient and sensitive techniques to detect cellular quantities such as proteins.
10.
In 2020, Robert Tjian collaborated with Jennifer Doudna and other UC Berkeley colleagues on a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
11.
Robert Tjian is a member of the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Advisory Board.