Steve McKnight received his undergraduate education at the University of Texas and carried out doctoral studies at the University of Virginia.  The first 15 years of his independent career were spent at the Department of Embryology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.  There Dr. McKnight used molecular biological and biochemical methods to study how genes turn on and off in mammalian cells.  In 1991 Dr. McKnight left academia and moved to San Francisco to co-found a biotechnology company devoted to the discovery of ethical drugs capable of treating human disease via the regulation of gene expression.  In 1996 Dr. McKnight moved to UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas where he now works as an independent scientist in the Department of Biochemistry.  Although primarily engaged as a basic scientist at UT Southwestern, Dr. McKnight also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and acts as fund-raiser for a postdoctoral fellowship organization called the Life Sciences Research Foundation.  Dr. McKnight is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Institute of Medicine of the NAS.