Are You a Faculty Member?
If you are a faculty member and would like to make a change to your faculty profile, please login to Profile+ with your UT Southwestern Id and password. Questions? Please email Web Services.
Steven McKnight, PhD
Endowed Title: Distinguished Chair in Basic Biomedical Research
Sam G. Winstead and F. Andrew Bell Distinguished Chair in Biochemistry
Integrative Biology
Contact Information
UT Southwestern Medical Center
5323 Harry Hines Boulevard
Dallas, Texas 75390
Office Phone: 214-648-3342
Office Fax: 214-648-3346
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
| Graduate School | University of Virginia Main Campus (1977) |
| Undergraduate | University of Texas at Austin (1974) |
Research Interests
Publications
Hou, J., Henzel, W.H., Ho, T.C., Brasseur, M., and McKnight, S.L. , Science , 1994; (265):1701-1706
Umek, R.M., Friedman, A. and McKnight, S.L. , Science , 1991; (251):288-292
Landschulz, W.H., Johnson, P.F., and McKnight, S.L. , Science , 1988; (240):1759-1764
Harland, R.M., Weintraub, H., and McKnight, S.L. , Nature , 1982; (301):38-43
McKnight, S.L. and Kingsbury, R. , Science , 1982; (217):316-325
Chen, Odstrcil, Tu and McKnight , Science , 2007; (316):1916-1919.
Tu and McKnight , Nature Reviews of Molecular and Cell Biology , 2006; (7):696-701
Pieper, Wu, Han, Estill, Dang, Wu, Reece-Fincanon, Dudley, Richardson, Brat and McKnight , PNAS , 2005; (102):14,052-14,057
Erbel-Sieler, Dudley, Zhou, Wu, Estill, Han, Diaz-Arrastia, Brunskill, Potter and McKnight , PNAS , 2004; (101):13,648-13,653
Tu, Kudlicki, Rowicka and McKnight , , ;
Related Links
Honors/Awards
Harvard University (1993)
National Academy of Sciences (1991)
American Society for Microbiology (1989)
AAAS (1989)
National Institutes of Health (1987)