The laboratory of Dr. Steven L. McKnight conducts research centered on mammalian gene expression. He employs genetic, biochemical and molecular biological methods to study the means by which transcription factors and signaling molecules regulate concerted biological and biochemical pathways.

Dr. McKnight has received many awards including the Eli Lilly Award, the Newcomb Cleveland Award, the Monsanto Award and the John Enders Lecture. He is a fellow of the American Society for Microbiology, an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. McKnight is a former member of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scientific Advisory Board and is a current Trustee of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

In 2004 Dr. McKnight was selected as a recipient of the National Institute of Health Director's Pioneer Award, a program designed to support individual scientists and thinkers with highly innovative ideas and approaches to contemporary challenges in biomedical research. In 2007 he was selected to the National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council.

In 1991, Dr. McKnight co-founded a biotechnology company, Tularik, which focused on drug discovery related to cell signaling and the control of gene expression. The company was sold in 2004 to Amgen.

He received his undergraduate education at the University of Texas at Austin and his PhD at the University of Virginia.