Biography Steve McKnight received his bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Texas in 1974 and his PhD degree in biology from the University of Virginia in 1977. He conducted postdoctoral research at the Carnegie Institution of Washington under the mentorship of Donald Brown and was appointed as a staff member of that institution in 1983. He was appointed as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator in 1988. His research focus at the Carnegie Institution was on gene regulation. He used molecular biological methods to define the regulatory DNA sequences constituting the promoter of the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene, then employed biochemical methods to purify gene specific transcription factors including members of the C/EBP and GABP families of transcription factors. In 1991 Dr. McKnight left academia to co-found Tularik, a San Francisco-based biotechnology company devoted to the discovery of ethical drugs acting to treat disease state via the regulation of gene expression. In 1995 Dr. McKnight moved from Tularik to UT Southwestern and in 1996 he was appointed as chairman of the Department of Biochemistry. Over the past 11 years Dr. McKnight has directed an active research laboratory and has guided the Department of Biochemistry to substantial growth in the disciplines of chemistry, biochemistry and biophysics. Dr. McKnight is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Education Undergraduate University of Texas at Austin (1974) Graduate School University of Virginia Main Campus (1977) Honors & Awards John Enders Lecture Harvard University (1993) Monsanto Award National Academy of Sciences (1991) Eli Lilly Award American Society for Microbiology (1989) Newcomb Cleveland Award AAAS (1989) DeWitt Stetten Lecture National Institutes of Health (1987)

Research Interest circadian rhythm gene regulation intracellular signaling metabolic rhythms neurogenesis

McKnight, S.L. and Miller, O.L., Jr. (1976). Ultrastructural Patterns of RNA Synthesis During the Early Embryogenesis of Drosophila melanogaster. Cell 8:305-319. McKnight, S.L. and Miller, O.L., Jr. (1977). Electron Microscopic Analysis of Chromatin Replication in the Cellular Blastoderm Drosophilia melanogaster Embryo. Cell 12:795-804. McKnight, S.L. (1980). The Nucleotide Sequence and Transcript Map of the Herpes Simplex Virus Thymidine Kinase Gene. Nucleic Acids Research 8:5949-5964. McKnight, S.L. and Gavis, E.R. (1980). Expression of the Herpes Simplex Virus Thymidine Kinase Gene in Xenopus laevis Oocytes: An Assay for the Study of Deletion Mutants Constructed in vitro. Nucleic Acids Research 8:5931-5948. McKnight, S.L. and Kingsbury, R. (1982). Transcriptional Control Signals of a Eukaryotic Protein-Coding Gene. Science 217:316-325. Harland, R.M., Weintraub, H. and McKnight, S.L. (1982). Transcription of DNA Injected into Xenopus Oocytes is Influenced by Template Topology. Nature 301:38-43. McKnight, S.L. and Tijan, R. (1986). Transcriptional Selectivity of Viral Genes in Mammalian Cells. Cell 46:795-805. Johnson, P.F., Landschulz, W.H., Graves, B.J. and McKnight, S.L. (1987). Identification of a Rat Liver Nuclear Protein that Binds to the Enhancer Core Element of Three Animal Viruses. Genes and Dev. 1:133-146. Landschulz, W.H., Johnson, P.F. and McKnight, S.L. (1988). The Leucine Zipper: A Hypothetical Structure Common to a New Class of DNA Binding Proteins. Science 240:1759-1764. Landschulz, W.H., Johnson, P.F., Adashi, E.Y., Graves, B.J. and McKnight, S.L. (1988). Isolation of a Recombinant Copy of the Gene Encoding C/EBP. Genes and Dev. 2:786-800. Friedman, A.D., Triezenberg, S.J. and McKnight, S.L. (1988). Expression of a Truncated Viral trans-activator in Mammalian Cells Selectively Impedes Lytic Infection by its Cognate Virus. Nature 335:452-454. Landshulz, W.H., Johnson, P.F. and McKnight, S.L. (1989). The DNA Binding Domain of C/EBP is Bipartite. Science 243:1681-1688. LaMarco, K.L. and McKnight, S.L. (1989). Purification of a Set of Cellular Polypeptides that Bind to the Purine-Rich cis-Regulatory Element of Herpes Simplex Virus Immediate Early Genes. Genes and Dev. 3:1372-1383. Vinson, C.R., Sigler, P.B. and McKnight, S.L. (1989). A Scissors-Grip Model for DNA Recognition by a Family of Leucine Zipper Proteins. Science 246:911-916. McKnight, S.L., Lane, M.D. and Gluecksohn-Waelsch, S. (1989). Is CCAAT/Enhancer Binding Protein a Central Regulator of Energy Metabolism? Genes and Dev. 3:2021-2024. Umek, R.M., Friedman, A. and McKnight, S.L. (1991). CCAAT/Enhancer Binding Protein: A Component of a Different Switch. Science 251:288-292. LaMarco, K., Thompson, C.C., Byers, B.P., Walton, E.M. and McKnight, S.L. (1991). Identification of Ets- and Notch-Related Subunits in GA Binding Protein. Science 253: 789-768. Thompson, C.C., Brown, T.A. and McKnight, S.L. (1991). Convergence of Ets- and Notch-Related Structural Motifs in a Heteromeric DNA Binding Complex. Science 253:762-768. Hou, J., Henzel, W.H., Ho, T.C., Brasseur, M. and McKnight, S.L. (1994). An Interleukin-4-Induced Transcription Factor: IL-4 Stat. Science 265: 1701-1706.

Batchelor, A.H., Piper, D.E., de la Brousse, F. C., McKnight, S. L. and Wolberger, C. (1998). The Structure of GABPα/β: An ETS Domain-Ankyrin Repeat Heterodimer Bound to DNA. Science 279, 1037-1041.