Frederick Sanger Facts
Frederick Sanger Facts
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| Interesting Frederick Sanger Facts: |
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| Frederick Sanger was born in Rendcomb, England and was the 2nd son of Dr. Frederick Sanger. |
| The family was well-to-do and he and his brother and sister were taught by a governess. |
| In 1927 he was sent to Downs School, a Quaker boarding school. |
| In 1936 he entered St John's College. Cambridge to study science. |
| In October 1940 he began studying for his PhD with the study of whether edible protein could be obtained from grass but later changed the subject to the study of lysine and the nitrogen of potatoes. |
| In 1943 he was awarded a doctorate and the title of his thesis was "The metabolism of the amino acid lysine in the animal body". |
| Sanger continued his research at Cambridge and in 1952 he discovered the polypeptide chains of bovine insulin, A and B which proved that proteins have a defined chemical composition. |
| It was his proof that every protein had a unique and precise amino acid sequence that earned him his first Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1958. |
| This discovery was crucial to the subsequent research of DNA by Watson and Crick. |
| In 1977 the Sanger team introduced the "dideoxy" chain-termination method for sequencing DNA molecules which was much faster and less laborious than previously used methods |
| This major breakthrough in DNA research earned him his 2nd Nobel Prize in 1980 and was used to sequence the entire human genome in this century. |
| On 4 October 1993 Sanger opened the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus which employs over 900 people and is the largest genomic research center in the world. |
| In addition to his Nobel Prizes, his other awards include: Fellow of the Royal Society (1954), Commander of the Order of the British Empire ( 1963), Order of Merit (1986), and the Copley Medal (1977) |
| The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is named in his honor. |
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