Sir Hans Kornberg

Title University Professor and Professor of Biology
Education PhD, Sheffield University, 1953
MA, DSc, Oxford University, 1961
ScD, Cambridge University, 1975
Email hlk@bu.edu
Phone 617-353-2440
Area of Interest the nature and regulation of carbohydrate transport in micro-organisms
CV
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Sir Hans Kornberg’s lab is not currently accepting applicants for graduate study or postdoctoral appointments

Our main research investigates:

(1) the mechanisms by which carbohydrates (such as glucose and fructose) are transported across the cell membrane of E.coli and enter the metabolic routes of the organism, and
(2) the manner in which these processes are regulated, This involves use of microbiological, biochemical and genetic procedures.

Current projects underway attempt to answer questions such as:

what happens when two carbohydrates are presented to the cell at the same time – which is utilized in preference to the other and why?
why do non-metabolizable analogs of glucose (such as methyl alpha-glucoside) inhibit growth on some substrates but not on others? And how do mutations that alter these phenotypes exert their effect?
how do E. coli regulate gluconeogenesis?
why does deletion of the gene specifying 1-phosphofructokinase (fruK) result in derepression of fructose uptake and how do nearby gene(s) reverse this effect without restoring FruK activity?

Kornberg HL, Lourenco C (2006) A route for fructose utilization by Escherichia coli. involving the fucose regulon. Proc Nat Acad of Sci, USA, 103, 19496-19499.
Kornberg HL (2003) Memoirs of a biochemical hod carrier. J Biol Chem. b, 9993-10001.
Sproul AA, Lambourne LT, Jean-Jacques DJ, Kornberg HL (2001) Genetic control of manno (fructo) kinase activity in Escherichia coli. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 98(26), 15257-9.
Kornberg HL (2001) Routes for fructose utilization by Escherichia coli. J Mol Microbiol Biotechnol. Jul 3(3), 355-9.
Kornberg HL, Lambourne LTM, Sproul AA (2000) Facilitated diffusion of fructose via the phosphoenolpyruvate / glucose phosphotransferase system of Escherichia coli. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 97, 1808-1812.
Kornberg H, Lambourne LTM (1994) The role of phosphoenolpyruvate in the simultaneous uptake of fructose and 2-deoxyglucose by Escherichia coli. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 91, 11080-11083.
Kornberg HL, Lengeler JW (1994) Bacterial phosphotransferase systems Phosphate in microorganisms: cellular and molecular biology. American Society for Microbiology 149-151.
Reizer J, Reizer A, Kornberg HL, Saier Jr MH (1994) Sequence of the fruB gene of Escherichia coli encoding the diphosphoryl transfer protein (DTP) of the phosphoenolpyruvate: sugar phosphotransferase system. FEMS Microbiology Letters 118, 159-162.