[3] Krainer holds the St. Giles Foundation Professorship at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Laurel Hollow, New York.

After the war, his father's original surname, Kreiner changed to Krainer due to a clerical error when he was a refugee in Italy.

Krainer lived through political unrest during his teenage years, including urban guerrilla and military dictatorship.

Krainer received a full scholarship from Columbia University and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biochemistry in 1981.

In 2019 he was awarded a Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for his contributions to the understanding of the RNA gene-splicing process and, in collaboration with fellow Prize Laureate Dr. Frank Bennet of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, the development of medical interventions that target the RNA-splicing process, including Spinraza, which is the first treatment for the genetic disorder Spinal Muscular Atrophy.