Frederick Sanger Biography

Frederick Sanger was a British biochemist, well known for his groundbreaking research on aspects of biochemistry, which have influenced generations of research and progress in fields of biology and chemistry. He is the only Briton to have won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry twice, also one of the only two people overall to have won the Nobel Prize in the same category. His research on the insulin molecule revolutionized the study of proteins and landed him the first of his two Nobel Prizes. After his first Nobel Prize, he started researching at the Medical Research Council (MRC) which housed better facilities to carry forward his research. Surrounding himself with the brightest minds and collaborators, he shifted his focus towards genome studies after meeting Francis Crick and other researchers studying DNA. He continued studying RNA and DNA sequencing and developed a technique for sequencing DNA that came to be known as the ‘Sanger Method’, which later on, got automated and computerized and ended up being used in the ‘Human Genome Project’. He received his second Nobel Prize jointly with Walter Gilbert. They were credited for their immense contributions in research regarding the base sequences found in nucleic acids. To know more about his life and works read on