Tjian, Robert (Tse Nan) (1949– )

US geneticist, of Hong Kong origin. One of the most-cited contemporary biochemists in the world, he made major contributions to research on genetic transcription and gene expression in both fruit flies and in mammalian cells infected with cancer-causing viruses. It was his laboratory that developed sequence-specific DNA affinity chromatography, the technique necessary for purifying genetic transcription factors.

Tjian was born in Hong Kong, China. He was a staff investigator at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York (1976–79), then became a professor of biochemistry at the University of California: Berkeley (1979).