Prof. Dr. Aziz Sancar, was born on September 8, 1946 in Mardin-Turkey, is a Turkish molecular biologist specializing in DNA repair, cell cycle checkpoints, and circadian clock, which mechanistic discoveries underlying a cellular process known as nucleotide excision repair, whereby cells correct errors in DNA that arise as a result of exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light or certain mutation-inducing chemical. With his research that mapped how cells repair the damaged DNA, and preserve the genetic data, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015.
Sancar stated the following: “I have received this prize thanks to the education reforms presented by Atatürk and Turkish Republic. So this prize goes to Atatürk and Anitkabir Museum that represents the Republic of Turkey.”
Sancar currently teaches in Biochemistry and Biophysics Department of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in USA.
Prize motivation: “for mechanistic studies of DNA repair.”
Sancar A. Mechanisms of DNA excision repair. Science. 1994 Dec 23;266(5193):1954-6. doi: 10.1126/science.7801120.
Aziz Sancar Foto: REUTERS
