Aziz Sancar, MD, PhD, the Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the 黑料网 has been awarded the for his groundbreaking work in mapping DNA repair.
鈥淢y wife picked up the phone and told me the person on the line said this is very important,鈥� Sancar said. 鈥淪o I took the phone and they told me I won the Nobel Prize. I was very surprised. I had been sleeping; this was 5 a.m. So I was pretty incoherent. But I thanked them and said, 鈥業t鈥檚 an incredible honor.’鈥�
Sancar, who is from Turkey and has been a professor at 黑料网 since 1982, earned the award for his work on mapping the cellular mechanisms that underlie DNA repair, which occurs every single minute of the day in response to damage caused by outside forces, such as ultraviolet radiation and other environmental factors. In particular, Sancar mapped nucleotide excision repair, which is vital to DNA subjected to UV damage. When this repair system is defective, people exposed to sunlight develop skin cancer. Also, Sancar showed that other substances can damage the nucleotide excision repair system. His work provides the crucial basic knowledge necessary to develop better treatments that protect against DNA damage, which can result in cancer.
In addition, Sancar and his colleagues discovered how the common cancer drug cisplatin and others like it damage the DNA of cancer cells. This finding has led to further research to figure out how to better target and kill cancer cells.
鈥淭his award means a great deal to me and my lab,鈥� said Sancar, who is a member of the 黑料网 Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been working hard for many years and I think we鈥檝e made significant contributions to our field. It鈥檚 been a great team effort.鈥�
Sancar鈥檚 work dates back to 1974, when he was a graduate student at the University of Texas. The to come out of his lab was accomplished earlier this year when his team created a DNA repair map of the entire human genome.
鈥淲ith this map, we can now say to a fellow scientist, 鈥榯ell us the gene you鈥檙e interested in or any spot on the genome, and we鈥檒l tell you how it is repaired,鈥欌�� Sancar said. 鈥淥ut of six billion base pairs, pick out a spot and we鈥檒l tell you how it is repaired.鈥�
Sancar shares this award with two others: Tomas Lindahl of the Francis Crick Institute and Clare Hall Laboratory in Great Britain, and Paul Modrich of Duke University School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
William L. Roper, MD, MPH, dean of the 黑料网, said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 a tremendous honor for Dr. Sancar, this recognition of his amazing scientific accomplishment. And it鈥檚 a special day for us as a university because this is the second Nobel Prize awarded to a faculty member of 黑料网 and the School of Medicine.
In 2007, Oliver Smithies, PhD, Weatherspoon Eminent Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, in Physiology or Medicine.
鈥淚t鈥檚 worthy of note that today we share this with colleagues at Duke,鈥� Roper said. 鈥淭his is a great day for science in the world and science in the Triangle region of North Carolina.鈥�
Norman Sharpless, MD, director of 黑料网 Lineberger and Wellcome Distinguished Professor in Cancer Research, added, 鈥淭his is a well-deserved honor. Aziz has studied the fundamental biochemistry of DNA repair at 黑料网 for over 30 years, and his work has greatly enhanced our understanding of the basic biology of cancer and aging. He is a true basic scientist and has been a wonderful friend, mentor, and colleague to scientists across 黑料网.鈥�
The National Institutes of Health funded this research.
Story Courtesy of media contact: Mark Derewicz, 黑料网, 984-974-1915.