Chromosome research wins Nobel Prize for Medicine
This article was originally published in Scrip
Australian and US citizen Elizabeth Blackburn and Americans Carol Greider and Jack Szostak have been jointly awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The three scientists will receive equal shares of the 10 million SEK ($1.4 million) prize for the discovery of "how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase". The enzyme forms the telomeres.
Dr Blackburn recently explained it: ''You can think of a chromosome as a shoelace with a telomere as the aglet - the tag or sheath at the end of a shoelace that prevents the end from fraying.''
Their research, selected to win by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, have allowed scientists to understand how the chromosome can be copied in a complete way during cell division, and be protected against degradation.
The discovery can have important repercussions for medicine, as some inherited diseases are known to be caused by defects in telomerase – the enzyme that makes telomere DNA, a region of repetitive DNA at the ends of chromosomes that protects them from destruction – such as anaemia, skin and lung diseases. There is also research to suggest cancer cells use telomerase to sustain their growth. "The discoveries… have added a new dimension to our understanding of the cell, shed light on disease mechanisms and stimulated the development of potential new therapies," the Nobel Foundation said.
Last year's winners were Harald zue Hausen, for his discovery that the human papillomavirus causes cervical cancer, and Francoise Barree-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier, for their discovery of HIV (scripnews.com, October 7th, 2009).