Nobel Laureate: Fred Sanger

 

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1980.

"for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids"



Frederick Sanger (1918 - ) was awarded the Nobel Prize for developing the chain termination, or dideoxy, method of sequencing DNA (The Sanger Method of DNA Sequencing). The method relies on synthesis of DNA in vitro using dideoxynucleotides that cause chain termination from time to time. The original method has been adapted to high throughput methods that are fully automated.

Fred Sanger shared the Nobel Prize with Walter Gilbert. It was Sanger's second Nobel Prize, his first was for developing methods to sequence proteins.

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[Photo Credit: The photograph show Fred Sanger in front of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.]