Dr. Tomas Lindahl is noted for his contributions to the comprehension of
DNA repair at the molecular level in bacterial and mammalian cells. He was the first to isolate a mammalian
DNA ligase and to describe a totally unanticipated novel group of
DNA glycosylases as mediators of DNA excision repair. He has also discovered a unique class of enzymes in mammalian cells, namely the
methyltransferases, which mediate the adaptive response to
alkylation of DNA and has shown that the expression of these enzymes is regulated by the ada gene. More recently he has elucidated the molecular defect in
Blooms syndrome [sic] to be the lack of DNA ligase I. Apart from providing profound insights into the nature of the DNA repair process his very important contributions promise to facilitate the design of more selective chemotherapeutic drugs for the treatment of cancer. Lindahl has also made a number of significant contributions to understanding at the DNA level the mechanism of transformation of
B-lymphocytes by the
Epstein-Barr virus. The most notable of these was the first description of the occurrence in
lymphoid cells of closed circular duplex viral DNA.[2]
He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015.[9] The Swedish Academy noted that "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 was awarded jointly to Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar 'for mechanistic studies of DNA repair'."[27]
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abAnon (1988).
"Dr Tomas Lindahl FMedSci FRS". royalsociety.org. London:
Royal Society. Archived from
the original on 22 September 2015. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
^Barnes, D. E.; Lindahl, T (2004). "Repair and genetic consequences of endogenous DNA base damage in mammalian cells". Annual Review of Genetics. 38: 445–76.
doi:
10.1146/annurev.genet.38.072902.092448.
PMID15568983.
^Crow, Y. J.; Hayward, B. E.; Parmar, R; Robins, P; Leitch, A; Ali, M; Black, D. N.; Van Bokhoven, H; Brunner, H. G.; Hamel, B. C.; Corry, P. C.; Cowan, F. M.; Frints, S. G.; Klepper, J; Livingston, J. H.; Lynch, S. A.; Massey, R. F.; Meritet, J. F.; Michaud, J. L.; Ponsot, G; Voit, T; Lebon, P; Bonthron, D. T.; Jackson, A. P.; Barnes, D. E.; Lindahl, T (2006). "Mutations in the gene encoding the 3'-5' DNA exonuclease TREX1 cause Aicardi-Goutières syndrome at the AGS1 locus". Nature Genetics. 38 (8): 917–20.
doi:
10.1038/ng1845.
PMID16845398.
S2CID9069106.