What if DNA goes wrong? - Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 & the "Ig Nobel"
The mechanisms and processes related to DNA are so complicated. And actually how will the cells react when something goes wrong in the process? The Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry this year can surely tell you more of the chemical processes occurring within your cells to combat the DNA damage.
The Nobel Prize is one of the highest honor in academy and it has been announced last week to be jointly awarded to Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar.
The three scientists contribute in telling the details of chemical processes when DNA goes wrong.
Their studies mainly focus on the role of different enzymes when there are mistakes in the DNA strands.
Common Errors in DNA
This photo shows one of the common errors occurring in DNA
The amino group of Cysteine (left one) can lose easily to give Uracil (right one), resulting in mismatch of DNA base pair.
Also, when exposed to UV light, thymine dimers may form, resulting in DNA damage.
These are not rare events - every second 50-100 dimers can form in one single skin cell!
Major Repairs Discovered
Here are three major repair mechanisms in their studies. You may check out more here! :)
1.Base excision repair (Glycosylase)
2.Mismatch repair (MutL, MutS)
3.Nucleotide excision repair (exinuclease)
The Ig Nobel!
Besides the Nobel Prize, Ig Nobel Prize was also announced earlier in September. The Ig Nobel Prize is awarded to scientists and honors the science that make people laugh at first, then think.
For example, in 2003 the prize was awarded for the chemical investigation of a bronze statue in Kanazawa which contains arsenic to drive away pigeons.
In 2007, the extraction of vanilla flavour from cow defecate.
In 2010, the similarity in terms of biochemistry in romantic love and severe obsessive compulsive disorder.
In 2011, the use of airborne wasabi as an alarm for awaking people in fire emergency.
And here is the 25th Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony (the part of Chemistry in 18:40-20:10)
Unboiling an egg?
This year the Ig Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to a group of Australian scientists who invented a mechanical way to "unboil" an egg.
The winner showed us how exactly we can distinguish a boiled egg and an unboiled egg by mechanical means. Of course, this is just kidding. They actually employed a machine called fluid vortex device (not by a mallet). By applying shear-stress, the folded protein (egg white) was forced to form a microfilm and untangle back to unfolded form in minutes.
It actually has useful potential application. Another group of scientists in the University of California Irvine applied the Fluid Vortex device to get the protein associated with the cancer.
References:
About The Ig® Nobel Prizes
Thymine Dimers. July 2007 Molecule of the Month by David Goodsell
UCI, fellow chemists find a way to unboil eggs