Editing Frederick Sanger (section)

===Later life===
[[File:EBI and Sanger Center, Genome campus, Cambridgeshire.jpg|thumb|right|300px| The Sanger Institute]]
Sanger retired in 1983, aged 65, to his home, "Far Leys", in [[Swaffham Bulbeck]] outside Cambridge.<ref name=rsbm/>

In 1992, the [[Wellcome Trust]] and the Medical Research Council founded the Sanger Centre (now the [[Sanger Institute]]), named after him.<ref name="Our people">{{Cite web | title=Frederick Sanger | url=http://www.sanger.ac.uk/about/people/biographies/fsanger.html | publisher=Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute | access-date=12 October 2010 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110407064631/http://www.sanger.ac.uk/about/people/biographies/fsanger.html | archive-date=7 April 2011 | df=dmy-all }}</ref> The institute is on the [[Wellcome Trust Genome Campus]] near [[Hinxton]], only a few miles from Sanger's home. He agreed to having the Centre named after him when asked by [[John Sulston]], the founding director, but warned, "It had better be good."<ref name="Our people"/> It was opened by Sanger in person on 4 October 1993, with a staff of fewer than 50 people, and went on to take a leading role in the [[Human Genome Project|sequencing of the human genome]].<ref name="Our people"/> The Institute had about 900 people in 2020 and is one of the world's largest [[genomic]] research centres.

Sanger said he found no evidence for a God so he became an agnostic.<ref name=hargittai>{{Cite journal | last=Hargittai | first=István | title=Interview: Frederick Sanger | journal=The Chemical Intelligencer | volume=4 | issue=2 | pages=6–11 | publisher=Springer-Verlag | place=New York | date=April 1999 }}. This interview, which took place on 16 September 1997, was republished in {{Cite book | last=Hargittai | first=István | year=2002 | title=Candid science II: conversations with famous biomedical scientists | chapter=Chapter 5: Frederick Sanger | publisher=Imperial College Press | place=London | isbn=978-1-86094-288-4 | pages=73–83}}</ref> In an interview published in the ''[[The Times|Times]]'' newspaper in 2000 Sanger is quoted as saying: "My father was a committed Quaker and I was brought up as a Quaker, and for them truth is very important. I drifted away from those beliefs – one is obviously looking for truth, but one needs some evidence for it. Even if I wanted to believe in God I would find it very difficult. I would need to see proof."<ref name=times>{{Cite web |last=Ahuja |first=Anjana |title=The double Nobel laureate who began the book of life |newspaper=[[The Times]] |location=London |date=12 January 2000 |page=40 |url=http://www.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/Chemistry/MedChem/MedChemInfo/info/Sanger.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211053639/http://www.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/Chemistry/MedChem/MedChemInfo/info/Sanger.html |archive-date=11 December 2008 |via=warwick.ac.uk |access-date=18 October 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

He declined the offer of a [[Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom#Knighthood|knighthood]], as he did not wish to be addressed as "Sir". He is quoted as saying, "A knighthood makes you different, doesn't it, and I don't want to be different." In 1986 he accepted admission to the [[Order of Merit (Commonwealth)|Order of Merit]], which can have only 24 living members.<ref name=Telegraph_obit/><ref name=hargittai/><ref name=times/>

In 2007 the British [[Biochemical Society]] was given a grant by the [[Wellcome Trust]] to catalogue and preserve the 35 laboratory notebooks in which Sanger recorded his research from 1944 to 1983. In reporting this matter, ''[[Science (journal)|Science]]'' noted that Sanger, "the most self-effacing person you could hope to meet", was spending his time gardening at his [[Cambridgeshire]] home.<ref>{{Cite journal| title=Newsmakers: A Life in Science | editor-last=Bhattachjee | editor-first=Yudhijit | journal=Science | volume=317 | issue=5840 | page=879 | year=2007 | url=http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol317/issue5840/newsmakers.dtl?cookietest=yes|doi=10.1126/science.317.5840.879e | s2cid=220092058 }}</ref>

Sanger died in his sleep at [[Addenbrooke's Hospital]] in [[Cambridge]] on 19 November 2013.<ref name=Telegraph_obit>{{Cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/science-obituaries/10462574/Frederick-Sanger-OM.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/science-obituaries/10462574/Frederick-Sanger-OM.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live | newspaper=The Telegraph | title= Frederick Sanger, OM | access-date= 20 November 2013 | date=20 November 2013 }}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name=death>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25020112 |title=Frederick Sanger: Nobel Prize winner dies at 95 |publisher=BBC.co.uk |date=20 November 2013 |access-date=20 November 2013}}</ref> As noted in his obituary, he had described himself as "just a chap who messed about in a lab",<ref>{{Cite news | title= Frederick Sanger: Unassuming British biochemist whose pivotal and far-reaching discoveries made him one of a handful of double Nobel prizewinners | location = London | newspaper=The Times | date=21 November 2013 |page=63 }}</ref> and "academically not brilliant".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://theconversation.com/frederick-sangers-achievements-cannot-be-overstated-20596 |title=Frederick Sanger's achievements cannot be overstated |work=The Conversation |date=21 November 2013 }}</ref>