Image courtesy (c) Nobel Media AB; photographer Alexander Mahmoud
Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for mechanistic studies of DNA repair."
These scientists have mapped at a molecular level how cells repair damaged DNA and safeguard the genetic information. Their work has provided fundamental insights into how cells function, and can be used in the development of new cancer treatments.
The reason our genetic material does not disintegrate into complete chemical chaos is that a host of molecular systems continuously monitor and repair DNA. These three pioneering scientists have mapped how several of these repair systems function at a detailed molecular level.
Thomas Lindahl is at the Francis Crick Institute and Clare Hall Laboratory, Hertfordshire, UK.
Paul Modrich is at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Aziz Sancar is at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.