Kurdish chemist from Turkey wins Nobel Prize

Dr Aziz Sancar. Photo: Hurriyet.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Dr Aziz Sancar, an ethnically Kurdish

citizen of Turkey, was one of three scientists awarded the 2015 Nobel 
prize for Chemistry on Wednesday for explaining how cells repair 
ultraviolet damage to DNA.
Sancar, born in 1946 in the Turkish city Savur, Mardin province, 
was given the award alongside Dr Tomas Lindahl and Dr Paul L Modrich. 
He is currently the Sarah Kenan Professor of Biochemistry at the University 
of North Carolina.

Lindahl, of the Francis Crick Institute in London, was honored for his discoveries 
on cells fix damaged DNA. Dr. Modrich, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute 
in Maryland and Duke University Medical Center, won for showing how cells 
correct DNA that is replicated during cell division.
Sancar completed his medical degree at Istanbul University and his PhD 
from the University of Texas in 1977.

Of the three winners, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which 
awarded the prize, said in a statement: “Their systematic work has made 
a decisive contribution to the understanding of how the living cell functions, 
as well as providing knowledge about the molecular causes of several 
hereditary diseases and about mechanisms behind both cancer 
development and aging.”

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