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Aziz Sancar receives is vital to DNA subjected to UV two others: Tomas Lindahl of the
Francis Crick Institute and Clare Hall
damage. When this repair system is
defective, people exposed to sunlight
Laboratory in Great Britain, and Paul
2015 Nobel Prize in develop skin cancer. Also, Sancar Modrich of Duke University School
showed that other substances can
of Medicine and the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute.
damage the nucleotide excision
Chemistry repair system. His work provides the William L. Roper, MD, MPH, dean
crucial basic knowledge necessary
to develop better treatments that of the UNC School of Medicine,
“My wife picked up the phone and protect against DNA damage, which said, “It’s a tremendous honor for
told me the person on the line said can result in cancer. Dr. Sancar, this recognition of his
this is very important,” Sancar said. amazing scientific accomplishment.
“So I took the phone and they told In addition, Sancar and his And it’s a special day for us as a
me I won the Nobel Prize. I was colleagues discovered how the university because this is the second
very surprised. I had been sleeping; common cancer drug cisplatin and Nobel Prize awarded to a faculty
this was 5 a.m. So I was pretty others like it damage the DNA of member of UNC and the School of
incoherent. But I thanked them and cancer cells. This finding has led to Medicine.
said, ‘It’s an incredible honor.’” further research to figure out how to In 2007, Oliver Smithies, PhD,
better target and kill cancer cells. Weatherspoon Eminent Distinguished
Sancar, who is from Turkey and has “This award means a great deal to Professor of Pathology and
been a professor at UNC since 1982, me and my lab,” said Sancar, who Laboratory Medicine, won the Nobel
earned the award for his work on is a member of the UNC Lineberger Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
mapping the cellular mechanisms Comprehensive Cancer Center. “It’s worthy of note that today we
that underlie DNA repair, which “We’ve been working hard for share this with colleagues at Duke,”
occurs every single minute of the many years and I think we’ve made Roper said. “This is a great day for
day in response to damage caused significant contributions to our field. science in the world and science
by outside forces, such as ultraviolet It’s been a great team effort.” in the Triangle region of North
radiation and other environmental Sancar’s work dates back to 1974, Carolina.”
factors. In particular, Sancar mapped when he was a graduate student at
nucleotide excision repair, which the University of Texas. The most Norman Sharpless, MD, director
Aziz Sancar, MD, PhD, recent work to come out of his lab of UNC Lineberger and Wellcome
was accomplished earlier this year
the Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor in Cancer
No: 1 Professor of Biochemistry when his team created a DNA repair Research, added, “This is a well-
March map of the entire human genome. deserved honor. Aziz has studied the
2016 and Biophysics at the UNC “With this map, we can now say to fundamental biochemistry of DNA
ISSN: 2148-953X
School of Medicine has a fellow scientist, ‘tell us the gene repair at UNC for over 30 years, and
The owner and responsible been awarded the 2015 you’re interested in or any spot on his work has greatly enhanced our
in-Chief the genome, and we’ll tell you how it understanding of the basic biology of
Süleyman GÜLER Nobel Prize for Chemistry
for his groundbreaking is repaired,’” Sancar said. “Out of six cancer and aging. He is a true basic
Editor billion base pairs, pick out a spot and scientist and has been a wonderful
Taşkın EROĞLU work in mapping DNA we’ll tell you how it is repaired.” friend, mentor, and colleague to
repair.
Graphic Designer 1535 Labmedya_2 5/1/16 01:59 pm Page 1 Sancar shares this award with scientists across UNC.”
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