On October 7, three scientists won the 2015 Nobel Prize in chemistry for their studies of DNA repair. They identified the molecular repair kits. Cells use these to fix damaged DNA.
Tomas Lindahl is a researcher at the Francis Crick Institute in Potters Bar, England. Paul Modrich is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C. Aziz Sancar works at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill. The trio uncovered three tools for correcting errors in the genetic blueprints of living cells.
Together, the scientists hammered out molecular details of the gadgets “that help to guard the integrity of our genes,” said Claes Gustafsson. The molecular biologist is a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry. He spoke at a news conference announcing the prize.
Long, spiral-shaped molecules of DNA exist inside the cells of every living organism — from people to plants to bacteria. DNA contains the instructions for building proteins needed for each organism’s survival. The instructions are spelled out in a winding string of chemical building blocks. Those building blocks, called nucleotides, contain a molecular backbone and either adenine, thymine, cytosine or guanine. They are symbolized by four DNA “letters” — A, T, C and G. Those letters are used over and over again to spell out thousands of genetic “words.”
