Frederick Sanger ─ Two-time Nobel Laureate in Chemistry

In this Brief, Joe Jeffers uncovers the life and works of two-time Nobel Laureate Frederick Sanger. Following Sanger’s early life to retirement, Jeffers describes how this celebrated British biochemist became the first person to determine the amino acid sequence of a protein for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1958. Highlighting Sanger’s remarkable career, Jeffers describes Sanger’s later change in research direction to investigate deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA), work for which Sanger also received the Nobel Prize jointly with Paul Berg and Walter Gilbert in 1980. Joe Jeffers conducted twelve interviews with Sanger over the period of 1999-2009 and he has also spoken to more than 40 of Sanger’s colleagues and family members. This brief provides a rigorous yet concise view of Sanger on a personal and scientific level and is suitable for biochemists, historians or the interested layperson.

Joe S. Jeffers is a native of Warren, AR, USA. He received a BS in Professional Chemistry from Ouachita Baptist University (1966) and a PhD in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology from Purdue University (1972). He was a graduate student with PT Gilham at Purdue, developing RNA sequencing methods at the same time Dr. Sanger was developing RNA sequencing methods in Cambridge. He has spent his career in the Department of Chemistry at Ouachita Baptist University, where he served sequentially as chemistry department chair, natural science division chair, and dean of natural sciences. He is currently the Holt Professor of Chemistry and Pre-Medical Studies. He conducted twelve interviews with Dr. Sanger over the period of 1999-2009.He also conducted interviews with more than 40 colleagues and family members of Dr. Sanger. He has been an active member of the Division of the History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society since 2000. He is married to Charlotte Williams Jeffers. They have two children, Teri Jeffers Vancil and Charles Darwin Jeffers.