The 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been jointly awarded to scientists Tomas Lindahl (Sweden) from the Francis Crick Institute and the Clare Hall Laboratory in the UK, Paul Modrich (USA) from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Duke University in United States and Aziz Sancar (Turkey) from the University of South Carolina in the United States, for their research on the mechanics of DNA repair, as announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
The three scientists have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry thanks to the development of a molecular level map of the different methods that coexist in each of the cells of the human body, how these systems work in detail, in order to detect and eliminate errors in the genetic code . His research has served and is serving to eliminate genetic mutations that can cause deadly diseases such as cancer.
Tomas Lindahl discovered a molecular machinery, base excision repair, that continually counteracts the collapse of our DNA (the rate of DNA breakdown should have made life on our planet impossible) ; Paul Modrich demonstrated how cells correct errors that occur when DNA replicates during cell division (defects in this system lead to a hereditary variant of colon cancer, for example); Finally, Aziz Sancar has managed to delimit DNA repair by nucleotide excision , the mechanism that cells use to repair the damage produced by UV rays to DNA (defects in this system lead to skin cancer)
“His work has provided a fundamental understanding of the vital functions of cells; have been awarded for having shown, at the molecular level, how cells repair damaged DNA and preserve genetic information, which can help develop new cancer treatments , “explains the academy in a statement.
