Second Nobel to Turkey with Aziz Sancar

2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three male chemists for their studies on DNA instauration:

* Tomas Lindahl, Francis Crick Institute and Clare Hall Laboratory, England: 

In 1970s scientists believed that DNA was a motionless molecule but Lindahl has proven that DNA can be degenerated to the extent of halting the progress of life on Earth and developed a mechanism that restores DNA. Lindahl born in 1983 is a citizen of Sweden.

* Paul Modrich, Howard Hughes Medicine Institute and Duke University School of Medicine, Durham-US:

He revealed how he has eliminated the nonadherence created by DNA during cell division. Modrich born in 1946 is a citizen of the US.

* Aziz Sancar, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill-US:

He has mapped the mechanism that restores the damage of DNA caused by UV radiation. Sancar born in 1946 in Savur is a citizen of Turkey and the US.

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that Nobel Prize in Chemistry was granted to these figures due to their studies on mapping on how damaged DNAs are restored and their genetic information preserved on a molecular level.

The studies in question manifest how a living cell processes and used in developing cancer treatments.

Prof. Sancar is the second figure awarded a Nobel Prize from Turkey. Novelist Orhan Pamuk was granted Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006.

Sancar, who is an academic member in Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics in University of North Carolina, is known with its invention "rhythmic watch" used in cancer treatment.

Sancar had said these before as to his Nobel winner studies:

"Most of the drugs used in cancer treatment damage DNA and DNA restore mechanisms in the body ensure those cancer cells survive. We initiated a study to understand and cast light on it.

"Our intention is to determine when the DNA restoration is at maximum and minimum and by doing so, we aim to increase the effect of drugs and decrease their side effects by administering medication when the DNA restoration potential is at minimum." (ÇT/TK)

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