Brian Kobilka

Facts

Brian K. Kobilka

© The Nobel Foundation. Photo: U. Montan

Brian K. Kobilka
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012

Born: 30 May 1955, Little Falls, MN, USA

Affiliation at the time of the award: Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

Prize motivation: “for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors”

Prize share: 1/2

Life

Brian Kobilka was born and raised in Little Falls, Minnesota, where his father and grandfather worked as bakers. After studying at the University of Minnesota Duluth, he earned his medical degree from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. After completing his residency in St Louis, Missouri, Kobilka moved to Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, where he conducted his Nobel Prize-winning research together with Robert Lefkowitz. He has been employed at Stanford University since 1989. Brian Kobilka is married with two children.

Work

Communication between the cells in your body are managed by substances called hormones. Each cell has a small receiver known as a receptor, which is able to receive hormones. In the 1980s, Brian Kobilka successfully identified the gene that regulates the formation of the receptor for the hormone adrenaline. He and Robert Lefkowitz also discovered that the receptor was similar to receptors located in the eye that capture light. It was later discovered that there is an entire family of receptors that look and act in similar ways–G-protein-coupled receptors. Approximately half of all medications used today make use of this kind of receptor.

To cite this section
MLA style: Brian K. Kobilka – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Tue. 19 Mar 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2012/kobilka/facts/>

Back to top Back To Top Takes users back to the top of the page

Nobel Prizes and laureates

Eleven laureates were awarded a Nobel Prize in 2023, for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. Their work and discoveries range from effective mRNA vaccines and attosecond physics to fighting against the oppression of women.

See them all presented here.
Illustration

Explore prizes and laureates

Look for popular awards and laureates in different fields, and discover the history of the Nobel Prize.