Biochemists Tomas Lindahl of Sweden and Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar of the United States won the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for their work on how cells repair damage to their DNA.

In its citation, the Nobel committee said their work has provided ¡°fundamental knowledge¡± of how cells function and has helped develop new treatments for cancer.

Lindahl said it was an honor to have his work recognized.

¡°It was a surprise. I know that over the years I have been considered for a prize, but so have hundreds of other people. I feel very lucky and proud to be selected,¡± Lindahl, 77, of Britain¡¯s Francis Crick Institute, said in a phone call relayed by the Nobel team as a webcast.

Modrich, born in 1946, is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a professor at Duke University School of Medicine, North Carolina.

Turkish-born Sancar, 69, is a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in North Carolina.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which administers the Nobel Prizes, said the work was revolutionary because until the early 1970s scientists believed DNA was a stable molecule.

Lindahl, it said, demonstrated that DNA in fact decays at a rate that ought to have made life on Earth impossible. Sancar mapped the mechanism that cells use to repair damage caused by ultraviolet light, and Modrich showed how cells correct errors that occur when DNA is replicating during cell division.

In an impromptu news conference following the announcement, Lindahl told reporters in Stockholm that what drove his research was partly the discovery that DNA is fragile and that damage is routine.

¡°Many of the drugs we use damage DNA,¡± he said.

Questioned about cigarette smoke in particular, he said the chemicals it contains are problematic. Since they are mutagens, once they bind to DNA they can cause a range of?problems, including cancer, he said.

The award of 8 million Swedish kronors ($960,000) will be shared equally between the laureates on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel¡¯s death in 1896.

This year¡¯s medicine prize went to scientists from Japan, the U.S. and China who discovered drugs to fight malaria and river blindness.

Japanese and Canadian scientists won the physics prize for discovering that subatomic particles called neutrinos have mass.

The Nobel announcements continue with literature on Thursday, the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday and the economics award on Monday.

Information from AP added