Paul L. Modrich

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Paul L. Modrich
Born Paul Lawrence Modrich
(1946-06-13) June 13, 1946 (age 69)
Raton, New Mexico, USA
Nationality United States
Fields DNA mismatch repair
Institutions
Alma mater MIT, Stanford University (PhD)
Known for Clarification of cellular resistance to carcinogens
Notable awards
Website
Paul L. Modrich

Paul Lawrence Modrich (born June 13, 1946) is the James B. Duke Professor of Biochemistry at Duke University and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He received a Ph.D. degree in 1973 from Stanford University and an B.S. degree in 1968 from MIT. He is known for his research on DNA mismatch repair.[1]

Research[edit]

Modrich joined Duke University's faculty in 1976 and has been a Howard Hughes Investigator since 1994. He works primarily on strand-directed mismatch repair. His lab demonstrated how DNA mismatch repair serves as a copyeditor to prevent errors from DNA polymerase. Matthew Meselson previously proposed the existence of recognition of mismatches. Modrich performed biochemical experiments to study mismatch repair in E. coli.[2] They later searched for proteins associated with mismatch repair in humans.[1]

Awards[edit]

He has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 jointly with Aziz Sancar and Tomas Lindahl.[3][4]

Dr. Modrich is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Paul Modrich Awarded 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry". HHMI. HHMI. October 7, 2015. Retrieved October 7, 2015. 
  2. ^ Su, SS; Modrich, P (July 1986). "Escherichia coli mutS-encoded protein binds to mismatched DNA base pairs.". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 83 (14): 5057–61. PMID 3014530. 
  3. ^ Broad, William J. (October 7, 2015). "Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded to Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar for DNA Studies". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 7, 2015. 
  4. ^ Staff (7 October 2015). "THE NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY 2015 - DNA repair – providing chemical stability for life" (PDF). Nobel Prize. Retrieved 7 October 2015.