Philip Hanawalt
| Philip C. Hanawalt | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1931 |
| Residence | United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | biophysics, cancer biology, dermatology |
| Institutions |
University of Copenhagen California Institute of Technology Stanford University |
| Alma mater | Yale University (MS in Physics, PhD in Biophysics), Oberlin College (BA in Physics), Deep Springs College |
| Known for | discovery of the process of repair replication of damaged DNA and the ubiquitous process of DNA excision repair. |
Philip C. Hanawalt (born 1931 in Akron, Ohio) is an American biologist who discovered the process of repair replication of damaged DNA in 1963. He is also considered the co-discoverer of the ubiquitous process of DNA excision repair along with his mentor, Richard Setlow, and Paul Howard-Flanders. He holds the Dr. Morris Herzstein Professorship in the Department of Biology at Stanford University, with a joint appointment in the Dermatology Department in Stanford University School of Medicine.
Having an interest in electronics from youth, Hanawalt earned an honorable mention in the 1949 Westinghouse Science Talent Search, receiving a scholarship to attend Deep Springs College. Hanawalt eventually transferred to Oberlin College where he received his B.A. in physics in 1954. He received his M.S. in physics from Yale University in 1955. Hanawalt also received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Yale University in 1959, and undertook three years of postdoctoral study at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and at the California Institute of Technology before joining the faculty at Stanford in 1961.
DNA repair is the process by which all living cells deal with damage to their genetic material. Such damage occurs as a consequence of exposure to environmental radiations and genotoxic chemicals, but also to endogenous oxidations and the intrinsic instability of DNA. Hanawalt and his colleagues discovered a special pathway of excision repair, called transcription-coupled repair, which is targeted to expressed genes, and he studies several diseases characterized by defects in DNA repair pathways. DNA repair is important for protecting against cancer and some aspects of ageing in humans, and its deficiency has been implicated in the etiology of a number of hereditary diseases.
In 1965 Hanawalt became Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford, and was promoted to Professor in 1970.
...
Wikipedia