Three scientists from Sweden, the US and Turkey have won the Nobel
Prize in chemistry for showing how cells repair damaged DNA. Their work
can be used to develop new cancer treatments. Swedish scientist Tomas
Lindahl, American Paul Modrich and US-Turkish national Aziz Sancar
shared the $960,000 prize, awarded on Wednesday.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said their work on DNA repair
“has provided fundamental knowledge of how a living cell functions” and
can be used for the development of new cancer treatments, the Associated
Press news agency reported.
Sancar is a professor at the University of North Carolina School of
Medicine in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Sancar is the second Turk to
win a Nobel Prize after novelist Orhan Pamuk was awarded the literature
prize in 2006, and the first in a scientific field.
“I’m sure there will be (celebrations in Turkey),” Sancar said. “Yes,
they’ve been asking over the years and I was tired of hearing ‘when are
you going to get the Nobel Prize?’ so I’m glad for my country as
well.” Sancar added that he hoped his award would inspire younger
Turkish scientists.
Aljazeera.
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