It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Michael J. Chamberlin, who died in his sleep on November 1, 2025, after declining health due to Parkinson’s and its accompanying dementia. Mike was a professor in the former Department of Biochemistry (1963-1989) and then in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Division of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, from 1989 until his retirement in 2001. He did his undergraduate work in chemistry at Harvard. As a graduate student at Stanford with the late Paul Berg, Mike was the first person to isolate RNA polymerase from E. coli, and his subsequent work studying bacterial and bacteriophage RNA polymerases revolutionized our understanding of transcription. He received many honors, including election to membership in the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2021, Mike was also honored with The Arthur Kornberg and Paul Berg Lifetime Achievement Award in Biomedical Sciences from the Stanford Medicine Alumni Association, for which this tribute video was prepared.
Mike is remembered for his unyielding scientific rigor and integrity. He took special pride in his students (graduate and undergraduate) and postdoctoral fellows. They were his lifeblood. Their work under his mentorship transformed the field of transcription regulation. Many have excelled professionally, in universities and colleges; companies; and other professions all across the United States and the world. They carry forward Mike’s attributes as a scientist and as a person. An insightful and heartfelt remembrance was also written by one of his former graduate students, Michael Gilman, CEO & Chairman of the Board of Directors of Arrakis Therapeutics.
Mike is survived by his wife, Caroline Kane, Professor in Residence Emerita at UC Berkeley; his brothers Peter, Steve, and Tom Chamberlin; their wives Cindy and Susan and partner Cat Caputo; and a nephew, David Chamberlin. In lieu of flowers, if you choose, please contribute to the Biology Scholars Program at UC Berkeley or the Ohio Fellows Program at Ohio University in Athens. A celebration of his life will be organized later in the spring of 2026.