Robert Tjian

Robert Tjian is the Howard Hughes Medical Institute President, Li Ka Shing Chancellor's Chair in Biology, and Professor of Molecular Therapeutics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is affiliated with the Division of Genetics and Development and leads the Tjian + Darzacq Group lab. His research focuses on transcriptional mechanisms, chromatin dynamics, and stem cell pluripotency. Tjian earned his B.S. in biochemistry from UC Berkeley (1971) and Ph.D. from Harvard (1976), followed by a postdoc at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. He has held leadership roles, including directing the Berkeley Stem Cell Center and the Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences. His honors include the National Academy of Sciences membership, Alfred P. Sloan Prize, and California Scientist of the Year (1994).

His research integrates structural biology, cryo-EM, single-molecule imaging, and genomics to study transcriptional control in live cells. Key projects address chromatin transactions, enhancer-promoter interactions, and transcription factor dynamics in stem cells and disease contexts. Recent work explores cancer genomics, viral infection mechanisms, and metabolic disorders using super-resolution imaging and CRISPR-based tools.

Tjian's lab develops imaging platforms like 3D ATAC-PALM and Fast SPT, advancing understanding of transcriptional regulation in health and disease. His work bridges molecular mechanisms with in vivo physiology, challenging traditional models of gene regulation in living cells.