Frederick Sanger

Frederick Sanger, born in 1918, British biochemist, molecular biologist, and two time Nobel Prize winner. Sanger won the 1958 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his research on the structure of proteins, and in 1980 he shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry with American biochemists Paul Berg and Walter Gilbert for their work on determining the base sequences in nucleic acids.

Born in Rendcomb, England, Sanger received both his B.A. degree (1939) and his Ph.D. degree (1943) from the University of Cambridge. He then joined the research laboratory headed by A. C. Chibnall, professor of biochemistry at Cambridge. In 1951 he joined the staff of the Medical Research Council and became one of the heads of the Council's molecular biology laboratory at Cambridge in 1961. Sanger retired from the Medical Research Council in 1983.

Sanger's initial research focused on determining protein's structure, utilizing chromatography techniques (analytical techniques used to separate substances) established by British biochemists Archer Martin and Richard Synge. Using the protein insulin, which was relatively small in size and available in large quantities, Sanger developed a new method for analyzing protein and showed that a molecule of insulin contains two peptide chains made of two or more amino acids that are linked together by two disulfide bonds. It took eight more years to finally identify the 51 amino acids that make up insulin. For this work Sanger was awarded his first Nobel Prize in 1958. Sanger's research facilitated further advances in the field of biochemistry by British biochemists John Kendrew and Max Perutz, who in 1960 were able to prepare three-dimensional models of protein molecules.

Sanger's research later turned to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). He spent much of his career developing a way to determine the exact sequence of bases, any of the four compounds present in DNA that combine in certain patterns to form the mechanism of the genetic code. The method he developed made it possible to sequence several hundred bases in one day, a process that previously took many years. It also helped foster new technology, including genetic engineering. It was for this groundbreaking work that Sanger was awarded his second Nobel Prize, becoming one of only four individuals to win the award twice, placing him in the company of Linus Pauling, Marie Curie, and John Bardeen. His other honors include the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (1979).