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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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3 US Genetics Researchers Win Medicine Nobel

Work in replication of chromosomes may aid cancer treatment

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(Newser) – Three American scientists won the Nobel Prize for Medicine today for their work on the replication of chromosomes, which has implications for cancer, aging, and stem cell research. The laureates focused on a string of DNA at the end of chromosomes, called telomeres, and discovered an enzyme that allows dividing cells to copy the entire length of genetic material without degradation. Several clinical trials are investigating whether eliminating this enzyme might be useful in cancer treatment.

Elizabeth Blackburn of UC San Francisco, Carol Greider of Johns Hopkins, and Jack Szostak of Harvard will each receive a third of the $1.4 million purse. The medicine award is the first of six Nobel Prizes to be announced in the coming days. Juries in Sweden will announce the laureates of the chemistry, physics, literature, and economics awards, while a committee in Norway awards the Nobel Peace Prize.

Biologists Elizabeth Blackburn from San Francisco and Carol Greider from Baltimore in Frankfurt, Germany. They and Jack Szostak won the Nobel Prize for Medicine today.
Biologists Elizabeth Blackburn from San Francisco and Carol Greider from Baltimore in Frankfurt, Germany. They and Jack Szostak won the Nobel Prize for Medicine today.   (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)
This 2006 photo provided by Massachusetts General Hospital shows genetics professor Jack Szostak in Boston.
This 2006 photo provided by Massachusetts General Hospital shows genetics professor Jack Szostak in Boston.   (AP Photo/Massachusetts General Hospital)
Elizabeth Blackburn poses next to a microscope in her lab in San Francisco.
Elizabeth Blackburn poses next to a microscope in her lab in San Francisco.   (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file)
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4 comments
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riffran
Oct 5, 09 6:00 AM CDT
selective cellular apoptosis.(apoptosis = cell death*in short*)....neat concept Reply
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rajanKazhmin
Oct 5, 09 12:51 PM CDT
Genetics are only a theory. Reply
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-1
iReader
Oct 5, 09 1:30 PM CDT
James Till & Ernest McCulloch should have won Reply
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+1
SBS
Oct 5, 09 6:53 PM CDT
Proud to be an American with this caliber of scientist in our country. Terrible diseases will be conquered with the work being done by people like this. Reply
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