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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Ian Sample Science editor

UK scientists win £2.2m Breakthrough prize for DNA reading advances

 Sir David Klenerman (left) and Sir Shankar Balasubramanian.
Sir David Klenerman (left) and Sir Shankar Balasubramanian. Photograph: Emmi Korhonen/Lehtikuva/AFP/Getty Images

Two British researchers have won the most lucrative prize in science for work that dramatically improved the speed and reduced the cost of reading DNA, the molecular instructions for life.

Sir Shankar Balasubramanian and Sir David Klenerman, both professors at the University of Cambridge, share the $3m (£2.2m) Breakthrough prize in life sciences with Pascal Mayer, the founder of the French firm Alphanosos, for creating next-generation genome sequencing, or NGS.

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