The Nobel Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar – The Point

In the third day of the week of Nobel, the famous Swedish jury awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry. This year, the prestigious award amounts to three researchers, the Swede Tomas Lindahl – Francis Crick Institute of Hertfordshire in the UK – the American Paul Modrich – Howard Hughes Medical Institute of Durham in the United States – and Turkish-American Aziz Sancar – University of North Carolina – for their study of the mechanisms of DNA repair. Research that has allowed to describe, at the molecular level, how cells repair their DNA when it is damaged, thus safeguarding their genetic information.

The DNA molecule unstable

rewarded together, these three researchers, however, worked independently of each other. Tomas Lindahl, born in 1938, discovered the base excision repair mechanism, which eliminates any errors slipping, over time, in the genetic code. Aziz Sancar, born in 1946, described how cells repair their DNA when it was damaged by ultraviolet rays. While Paul Modrich, also born in 1946, himself has shown how cells corrected the errors that occur when DNA is replicated during cell division.

“These three scientists each identified different reparative enzymes or different DNA repair pathways, “says Marie-Paule Teulade-Fichou, director of the laboratory chemistry, modeling and imaging for biology (CNRS Institut Curie), itself awarded the medal money CNRS in 2015. “When they began their work, we even did not know that DNA could be damaged,” recalls Miria Ricchetti, laboratory researcher genetics genomes (Institut Pasteur-CNRS). “Together, they have contributed to the emergence of the idea that DNA is not stable, it can be broken and repaired,” she said.

anticancer strategies

This mechanism gave and still gives grist to research against cancer. “First, because, if the damaged DNA is not repaired, it progresses to cancer. Then because finding molecules that inhibit DNA repair pathways is part of anticancer strategies of the future . For if it prevents a cancer cell to repair itself, it will progress to death, “said Marie-Paule Teulade-Fichou. The challenge is of course to achieve target only diseased cells …

2015 is a very good year for the repair DNA since the issue of two other pioneers, Evelyn M. Witkin and Stephen J. Elledge, have this year received the Lasker Award which rewards personalities of basic and clinical medical research. Last year, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to two Americans, Eric Betzig and William E. Moerner, and a German, Stefan W. Hell, for the development of fluorescence microscopy at very high resolution.

Turkish Premier

Each Nobel award comes with a prize of eight million Swedish kronor (about 855,000 euros – the amount fixed since 2012) divided between each of the winners are several, but they may dispose freely. Thus, for each, a chance to continue his research without big financial pressure. Since 1901, 109 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded. These winners include only eight French and four women. Aziz Sancar is the first Turk to receive this distinction.