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Hahn
Steven Hahn, PhD
- Professor, Basic Sciences Division, Fred Hutch
- Affiliate Professor, Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington School of Medicine
Background
Our genes act as a recipe book for our cells. They contain the instructions for making all the proteins that cells need — but there are only two copies of each gene, and our cells need hundreds if not thousands of copies of a protein to function properly. To address this, cells make many copies of a gene, which can be used by the protein-building factories as protein-making instructions. These copies are called messenger RNA, or mRNA. Dr. Steven Hahn studies the molecular machines that make mRNA. At any given time, only certain genes are copied into mRNA because only those proteins are needed for specific cellular functions. Dr. Hahn seeks to understand how the mRNA-producing machines work, and how cells turn them on and off at the right time. Alterations in this process occur in many human diseases, making it critical for researchers to better understand this fundamental process.
Education
Post-doctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Leonard Guarente, September 1984 - October 1988. Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Department of Biochemistry, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA. September 1979 - September 1984. PhD in Biochemistry, September 1984. Thesis Advisor: Dr. Robert Schleif. Thesis: Studies on Transcriptional Regulation of the Escherichia coli L-arabinose Operon.
University of California, Santa Barbara, September, 1977 – June 1979. BA (With High Honors), June 1979
Santa Rosa Jr. College, Santa Rosa, CA September 1975 – June 1977.