They share the award with Tomas Lindahl, Ph.D., of the Francis Crick Institute and Clare Hall Laboratory, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom.
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Three scientists from Sweden, the US and Turkey won the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for showing how cells fix damaged DNA, work that’s inspired the development of new cancer treatments. Knowledge of the mechanisms is specially important in our contemporary world where DNA is increasingly being damaged by external factors – such as exposure to UV light, smoking, radiation and carcinogens – on top of the natural mistakes that might occur during DNA replication. ’73 was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry this Thursday for his research on mapping and explaining the mechanisms of DNA fix at a molecular level.
“His work led to a deeper understanding of why the disease develops and, crucially for patients, treatments that target cancer’s weak spots in DNA fix”. “NIH is proud to have supported this work”.
“The reason our genetic material does not disintegrate into complete chemical chaos is that a host of molecular systems continuously monitor and fix DNA”. This correction is called mismatch fix.
During an interview Lindahl participated in, after being awarded the Nobel Prize, he expressed his gratitude, surprise and joy that his lifetime work had been recognized as noteworthy and “actually important”. Lindhal, Modrich, and Sancar mapped out this process. For instance, many anti-cancer drugs are known to damage DNA.
Aziz Sancar, who has double citizenship (American and Turkish) was also honored for his contribution. He is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Modrich solved the puzzle of how cells correct errors that arise when cells are replicated, finding that they use mismatch fix to sharply reduce the frequency of errors. His work detailed how proteins are able to address ultraviolet damage through a process called nucleotide excision fix.
Modrich is the 28th MIT alumnus to win a Nobel Prize, and the 85th MIT-connected victor of the prize.
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The actual Prize Award Ceremony, which will be attended by this year’s laureates, will take place in Oslo, Norway, on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
