News Release

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

NIH Grantees Win 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Like a watch wrapped around a wrist, a special enzyme encircles the double helix to repair a broken strand of DNA. Without molecules that can mend such breaks, cells can malfunction, die, or become cancerous. Courtesy of Tom Ellenberger, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and Dave Gohara, Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

The 2015 Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded to National Institutes of Health grantees Paul Modrich, Ph.D., of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, N.C.; and Aziz Sancar,  M.D., Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C., for having mapped, at a molecular level, how cells repair damaged DNA and safeguard the genetic information.  They share the award with Tomas Lindahl, Ph.D., of the Francis Crick Institute and Clare Hall Laboratory, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said their work on DNA repair "has provided fundamental knowledge of how a living cell functions."

Thousands of spontaneous changes to a cell's genome occur on a daily basis while radiation, free radicals and carcinogenic substances can also damage DNA. To keep the information in the genetic instruction book from degrading, a range of molecular systems monitor and repair DNA, in processes that the three award-winning scientists all helped map out.

"This basic understanding about cell function has led to the discovery of the causes of genetic conditions associated with cancer, and is being used to develop new cancer treatments,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. "NIH is proud to have supported this work."

NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences has supported the work of Dr. Sancar since 1982 and continuously supported the work of Dr. Modrich since 1972. Dr. Sancar’s work has also been supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, while the National Cancer Institute has also supported the work of Dr. Modrich.

The Office of the Director, the central office at NIH, is responsible for setting policy for NIH, which includes 27 Institutes and Centers. This involves planning, managing, and coordinating the programs and activities of all NIH components. The Office of the Director also includes program offices which are responsible for stimulating specific areas of research throughout NIH. Additional information is available at http://www.nih.gov/icd/od.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

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