Brian Kobilka
Brian Kobilka, MD, is Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, and Hélène Irwin Fagan Chair in Cardiology, at Stanford University School of Medicine.
He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, in 1977. He graduated from Yale University School of Medicine in 1981, and completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the Barnes Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri, in 1984. From 1984–1989, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Robert Lefkowitz at Duke University. In 1990 he joined the faculty of Medicine and Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University.
Research in the Kobilka lab focuses on the structure and mechanism of action of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), which constitute the largest family of receptors for hormones and neurotransmitters in the human genome. GPCRs are the largest group of targets for new therapeutics for a very broad spectrum of diseases.
In 2012, Kobilka was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on GPCRs. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.