Frederick Sanger summary

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Frederick Sanger, (born Aug. 13, 1918, Rendcombe, Gloucestershire, Eng.—died Nov. 19, 2013, Cambridge), British biochemist. Educated at the University of Cambridge, he thereafter worked principally at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge (1951–83). He spent 10 years elucidating the structure of the insulin molecule, determining the exact order of all its amino acids by 1955. His techniques for determining the order in which amino acids are linked in proteins made it possible to discover the structure of many other complex proteins. In 1958 he won a Nobel Prize for his work. In 1980 Sanger became the fourth person ever to be awarded a second Nobel Prize, which he shared with Paul Berg and Walter Gilbert (b. 1932), for determining the sequences of nucleotides in the DNA molecule of a small virus.

Royal Society Summary

Royal Society, the oldest national scientific society in the world and the leading national organization for the promotion of scientific research in Britain. The Royal Society originated on November 28, 1660, when 12 men met after a lecture at Gresham College, London, by Christopher Wren (then

Nobel Prize Summary

Nobel Prize, any of the prizes (five in number until 1969, when a sixth was added) that are awarded annually from a fund bequeathed for that purpose by the Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel. The Nobel Prizes are widely regarded as the most prestigious awards given for intellectual

chemistry Summary

Chemistry, the science that deals with the properties, composition, and structure of substances (defined as elements and compounds), the transformations they undergo, and the energy that is released or absorbed during these processes. Every substance, whether naturally occurring or artificially

insulin Summary

Insulin, hormone that regulates the level of sugar (glucose) in the blood and that is produced by the beta cells of the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. Insulin is secreted when the level of blood glucose rises—as after a meal. When the level of blood glucose falls, secretion of insulin stops,