Where was Aziz Sancar born?

Aziz Sancar^[1]
is an American-Turkish biochemist who was jointly awarded the Nobel
Prize for Chemistry in 2015. He is best known for his
groundbreaking discovery on the mechanisms used by bacteria and
humans to find, remove and repair UV and chemically-damaged DNA^[2].

We explore the life and times of Sancar and his award-winning
work. 

RELATED: 11 AMAZING BIOLOGY YOUTUBE
CHANNELS THAT WILL HAVE YOU GRIPPED^[3]

Where was Aziz Sancar born?

Aziz Sancar was born on the 8th of September in 1946 in
Suvar, Mardin Province. “Aziz Sancar was born in Savur
in southeast Turkey in a lower-middle-class family. His parents had
no education but considered education important for their
children.” – Nobel Prize^[4]. 

He is best known as the biochemist who discovered a
cellular process know as nucleotide excision repair^[5]. 

This is the process where cells correct errors in their DNA^[6]
that arise from damage caused by exposure to UV of certain
mutation-inducing chemicals. 

Source: Holger Motzkau/Wikimedia Commons^[7]

As a result of this groundbreaking work, Aziz received the 2015
Nobel Price for Chemistry. He shared the prize with two other
biochemists, Tomas Lindahl^[8] and Paul Modrich^[9].

What is Aziz Sancar’s profession?

Aziz Sancar is an American-Turkish biochemist whose work
encompasses various subfields. These include,  but are not
limited to: 

• Biochemistry

• Molecular biology

• DNA repair

• Molecular biophysics

• Cancer research

As already mentioned, Aziz’s primary work has been on DNA repair, but he also made
significant contributions
to photolyase and nucleotide excision
repair in bacteria that have changed the
field.^[10]

At this time, Aziz Sancar is the Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of
Biochemistry and Biophysics^[12] at
the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
He’s also a member of the UNC Lineberger
Comprehensive Cancer Center. ^[11]

He is a co-founder of the Aziz & Gwen Sancar Foundation^[13]. It is a non-profit
organization to promote Turkish culture and
to support Turkish students in the United States.

“Aziz and Gwen Sancar Foundation (AGS Foundation) is
organized primarily for educational and charitable purposes to
increase understanding of Turkey, and to promote closer ties
between the United States and Turkey. Established in
2007, it is a 501 (c) (3), a non-profit organization, with an EIN
#26-0871109.

In the broad sense, the purpose of the organization is to
establish a Turkish Student Center (Carolina Turkish
House) in close proximity to the university campus,” states
the website^[14] of the
Foundation. 

Which university did Aziz Sancar graduate
from?

Aziz initially trained as an M.D. in 1969 at the Istanbul
Medical School. After qualifying, he worked as a local physician
near his hometown of Savur. 

In 1973, Aziz went to the United States to study molecular
biology at the University of Texas in Dallas. He completed his
Ph.D. at the university and was then offered a position as a
research associate at Yale University.

In 1982, Aziz joined the faculty at the University of
North Carolina School of Medicine. It was there that he was later
named the Sarah Graham Kenan
Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics^[15].

What did Aziz Sancar discover?

“Living cells have DNA molecules that carry an organism’s
genes. For the organism to live and develop, its DNA cannot change.
DNA molecules are not completely stable, and they can be
damaged.

In 1983, through studies of bacteria, Aziz Sancar showed
how certain protein molecules, [and] repair enzymes, repair DNA
damaged by ultraviolet (UV) light.

These discoveries have increased our understanding of how
the living cell works, the causes of cancer and aging processes,”
explains the Nobel Prize^[16] website.

Aziz Sancar, as a graduate student at the University of
Texas, studied an enzyme called photolyase^[17] in E. coli. At
this time, the enzyme had recently been discovered to mediate the
process of photoreactivation^[18]. 

This is where visible light induces enzymes to repair
damaged DNA after being damaged by UV irritation. He would continue
his research at Yale University.

E.
coli. Source: NIAID/Flickr^[19]

“After moving to Yale, Sancar turned his attention to
several other DNA repair factors in E. coli, namely
the genes^[20] uvrA, uvrB,
and uvrC. He purified the genes and reconstituted
them in vitro (“in glass,” or outside a living organism), leading
to his discovery of the excision repair function of an enzyme known
as uvrABC nuclease (excision nuclease, or excinuclease)
in E. coli.” – Encyclopedia
Brittanica^[21].

This enzyme, Aziz found, was able to specifically hone in
on UV or chemically damaged DNA and remove it from the DNA
sequence. The enzyme, it was revealed, was able to cut the damaged
DNA strand at each end, enabling it to be removed by
nucleotides. 

Aziz and his colleagues were later able to identify a similar
process in human beings. They found the components required
for nucleotide
excision repair^[22] in human cells, and
proposed that human cells employed additional enzymes in the
removal of the excised portion of DNA. 

“He also identified a role for defective nucleotide
excision repair in the production of neurological abnormalities
associated with xeroderma pigmentosum^[23], a neurodegenerative
condition that predisposes individuals to skin cancer^[24],” according
to Encyclopedia
Brittanica^[25].

Building on their findings, Aziz and his team were also
able to discover that abnormalities in nucleotide excision repair
appeared to be the leading cause of some other
diseases. 

These include, but are not limited to:

In the early 2000s, Aziz was able to observe, for the first
time, the mechanism of DNA repair by photolyase. He was able to
identify human orthologs for E. coli photolyase in
humans — cryptochrome 1 and
2^[26].

These cryptochromes, which are located in the eye,
function as photoreceptive components of the mammalian circadian
clock.

When did Aziz Sancar receive the Nobel Prize, and is it
true, he donated it?

As we have already mentioned, Aziz received his Nobel
Prize in 2015 “for mechanistic studies of DNA repair,” and shared
the award with two others, Tomas Lindahl^[27] and Paul
Modrich^[28].

A proud Turk, Aziz later donated his
original Nobel Prize golden medal and
certificate^[29] to the mausoleum of Mustafa
Kemal Atatürk^[30] (Anitkabir) in a
presidential ceremony in 2016.

Azia also delivered a replica of his Nobel medal and certificate to Istanbul
University, where he earned his MD.^[31]

Selected facts about Aziz Sancar

1. Aziz Sancur was born on the 8th of September 1946
in Savur, Turkey. 

2. Aziz earned his M.D. in Turkey but later completed a Ph.D. in
the United States.

3. Aziz Sancar was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in
2015.

4. Currently, he’s a professor at the University of
North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill.

5. Aziz Sancar is married to Gwen Boles Sancar, also
a professor of biochemistry and biophysics. The couple met while
Aziz was completing his Ph.D. in Dallas, Texas. 

6. He is best known for his discovery of how certain protein
molecules and enzymes are able to repair UV and chemically damaged
DNA. 

7. Aziz is an elected member of multiple academies,
including the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences (2004), the U.S. National Academy of
Sciences (2005), and the Turkish Academy of Sciences
(2006).^[32][33]

8. When asked if he is “a Turk or half-Arab” by
the ^[34]BBC, Sancar
responded: “I told them that I neither speak Arabic nor Kurdish and
that I was a Turk.” He continued: “I’m a Turk, that’s it. It
doesn’t matter that I was born in Mardin.”^[35]

9. Sancar’s work could yield important developments in the fight
against cancer in the future. 

“DNA repair is important in terms of preventing the
human body against cancer because most of the factors that
lead to cancer, damage DNA and cause the person to have that
disease,” Sancar told Anadolu Agency^[36] in an
interview. “We have revealed how DNA repairs itself and how
the human cells protect themselves against cancer,” he
added.