Frederick Sanger, a British biochemist whose discoveries about the chemistry of life led to the decoding of the human genome and to the development of new drugs like human growth hormone, earning him two Nobel Prizes, a distinction held by only three other scientists, died on November 19, 2013 in Cambridge, England. He was 95.
His death was confirmed by Adrian Penrose, communications manager at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge. Dr. Sanger lived in a nearby village called Swaffham Bulbeck.
Dr. Sanger won his first Nobel Prize, in chemistry, in 1958 for showing how amino acids link together to form insulin. The discovery gave scientists the tools to analyze any protein in the body.
In 1980 he received his second Nobel, also in chemistry, for inventing a method of “reading” the molecular letters that make up the genetic code. This discovery was crucial to the development of biotechnology drugs and provided the basic tool kit for decoding the entire human genome two decades later.
Unusual for someone of his stature, Dr. Sanger spent his entire career in a laboratory. Long after receiving his first Nobel, he continued to perform many experiments himself instead of assigning them to junior researchers as is typical in modern science labs.
Dr. Sanger said he was not particularly adept at coming up with experiments for others to do and had little aptitude for administration or teaching.
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