Useful discoveries about DNA winning the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Three US, Swedish and Turkish scientists became co-owners of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their useful, groundbreaking studies of cell-level DNA repair.

American, Swedish and Turkish scientists received the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has just announced its decision to award this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry to researchers Thomas Lindahl , (Swedish-based, working for the Francis Crick Institute and the Clare Hall laboratory in England. ), Paul Modrich (originally American, working at Duke Medical School, Duke University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute) and Aziz Sancar (Turkish origin, working at the University of North Carolina, USA).

The Nobel committee said the findings of the three scientists "provided a basic understanding of how a living cell works and can be used to develop cancer treatments." How new? "

According to experts, DNA damage always happens and the reason why our genetic material does not disintegrate into completely chemically mess is thanks to a series of continuous monitoring systems and DNA repair.The 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry honors three scientists who have worked out a map of how many of these repair systems work at a detailed molecular level.

Portrait of 3 "Nobel Laureates" in the field of Chemistry in 2015. (Photo: CBC).

In the early 1970s, scientists believed that DNA was an extremely stable molecule, but scientist Tomas Lindahl proved that DNA decays at a rate that certainly facilitates development. of life on Earth. This insightful view led him to discover a molecular breakdown mechanism at the molecular level, constantly countering the collapse of our DNA.

The researcher Aziz Sancar has also mapped out the repair of the nucleotide e fragmentation , the mechanism that cells are using to repair damage caused by ultraviolet rays to DNA. People born with a defect in this repair system will develop skin cancer if they are exposed to sunlight. Cells are also taking advantage of nucleotide fragmentation repair to overcome defects derived from mutants.

Meanwhile, Scientist Paul Modrich has discovered how cells repair errors when DNA is copied during cell division. This inadequate double-fixing mechanism has reduced the frequency of errors that occurred during DNA replication about 1,000 times. We have noted birth defects due to malfunctioning of the pair repair mechanism that have led to a genetic variant of bowel cancer.

"From one cell to another, from generation to generation, genetic information determines how people shape how smoothly they have been throughout our bodies for hundreds of thousands of years. It was constantly faced with environmental attacks, but it was still intact. Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar were awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2015 for their ability to map and explain how cells repairing its DNA and protecting genetic information " , quoted the Nobel Committee.

Thus, in addition to medals and certificates of Nobel Prize in chemistry, three experts Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar will share the prize of 8 million Swedish kronor, equivalent to about USD 960,000.