Robert Tjian

Dr. Robert Tjian joined The Column Group as a Discovery Partner in September 2016. Prior to that he served as President of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute 2009-2016. Dr. Tjian discovered the first human proteins called transcription factors that bind to specific sections of DNA and play a critical role in regulating how genetic information is expressed into the thousands of biomolecules that keep cells, tissues, and organisms alive. His laboratory has focused on disruptions in the process of transcription that cause diseases such as cancer, metabolic syndromes, and neuro-degenerative diseases including how transcription factors control the self-renewal, pluripotency and differentiation of embryonic stem cells. He has also pioneered the use of single cell-single molecule imaging of ES cells to reveal the dynamic nature of transcription factors operating in living cells. Dr. Tjian joined the University of California, Berkeley faculty in 1979, where he assumed several leadership roles such as: Director of the Berkeley Stem Cell Center, Faculty Director of the Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences and Head of the Siebel Stem Initiative. He currently serves as scientific advisor to the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and The BioHub. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has received numerous awards including the Alfred P. Sloan Prize and the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize. He served on the original SAB of Genentech and Chiron, as well as Amgen, was a co-founder of Tularik with Dave Goeddel and Steve McKnight, and was a founding Science Partner of The Column Group. He currently also serves on the Board of Directors of eLife and the Scientific Advisory Board of Eikon Therapeutics.