The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2006 was awarded to Roger D. Kornberg "for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription".
 

Kornberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2006 for his studies of the process by which genetic information from DNA is copied to RNA, "the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription." His father, Arthur Kornberg, who was also a professor at Stanford University, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1959.
 

Kornberg's contribution has culminated in his creation of detailed crystallographic pictures describing the transcription apparatus in full action in a eukaryotic cell. In his pictures we can see the new RNA-strand gradually developing, as well as the role of several other molecules necessary for the transcription process. The pictures are so detailed that separate atoms can be distinguished and this makes it possible to understand the mechanisms of transcription and how it is regulated.
 

The Prize amount: SEK 10 million.