Tomas Lindahl, Paul L Modrich, and Aziz Sancar were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry today for having mapped and explained how the cell repairs its DNA and safeguards its genetic information, the New York Times reports.
Born 1938 in Stockholm, Sweden, Dr Lindahl is an emeritus group leader at the Francis Crick Institute and emeritus director of cancer research UK at Clare Hall Laboratory, Hertfordshire, UK. He made discoveries concerning base excision repair—the cellular mechanism that repairs damaged DNA during the cell cycle.
Born 1946 in the US, Dr Modrich is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and the James B Duke Professor of Biochemistry at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina. He was recognized for showing how cells correct errors that occur during DNA replication.
Born 1946 in Savur, Turkey, Dr Sancar is the Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for mapping the mechanism cells use to repair ultraviolet damage to DNA, as shown in the diagram above.
