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Three American scientists win 2009 Nobel Prize for Medicine

Published: 05/10/2009 05:00

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Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak, all from the United States, won the Nobel Prize for Medicine for 2009 on Monday.

The trio were awarded the prize for the discovery of “how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase,”the Nobel jury — the Nobel Assembly announced at a press conference at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Nobel Laureates of 2009 have solved a major problem in biology: how the chromosomes can be copied in a complete way during cell divisions and how they are protected against degradation, explained Professor Rune Toftgard, member of the Nobel Committee, who gave an introduction about the discovery at the press conference.

He added, the solution is to be found in the ends of the chromosomes — the telomeres — and in an enzyme that forms them — telomerase.

“The importance of the discovery has its main implications in our understanding of disease process such as stem cell maintenance, cancer, inherited diseases and aging,” Professor Rune Toftgard told Xinhua.

He said that scientists also speculated that telomere shortening could be a reason for ageing, and also bone marrow, lung and skin problems but the application is still in an infant stage.

It was Blackburn who first presented her results at a conference in 1980. That caught the interest of Jack Szostak who performed experiment together with Blackburn later. The breakthrough of the discovery took place on Christmas day in 1984 when Greider discovered signs of enzymatic activity in a cell extract, explained Toftgard.

Blackburn, born in 1948 in Tasmania, a state of Australia, has both U.S. and Australian citizenship. She has been professor of biology and physiology at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) since 1990.

“We are very excited here at the UCSF,” Corinna Kaarlela, a spokesperson of the university, told Xinhua early Monday morning.

The university will be having a press conference Monday on Blackburn’s winning of the Nobel Prize, she said.

“Dr. Blackburn’s research over the course of more than three decades has revolutionized scientists’ understanding of the way in which cells function,” Susan Desmond-Hellmann, chancellor of UCSF, said in a statement.

“Her co-discovery of the telomerase has revealed a mechanism that plays a key role in determining the lifespan of cells, as well as the processes of cell aging and cancers,” she added.

“Her generous spirit, curiosity and highly collaborative nature have led her to forge research partnerships that have significantly broadened scientists’ capacity to understand the remarkable telomerase enzyme. As a scientist, a colleague, a mentor and a woman in science, she is an inspiration to the nationand the world,” the chancellor said.

Carol W. Greider, born in 1961, is the youngest woman who won the Nobel Prize and also one of the two women who won the prize.

Jack W. Szonstak was born in London in 1952 and grew up in Canada. He got a PhD at Cornel University in New York and is currently professor of genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

The winners of the physics prize will be announced on Tuesday, to be followed by those for chemistry on Wednesday, literature on Thursday, peace on Friday and economics next Monday.

The annual Nobel Prizes are usually announced in October and are handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite.

The prizes have been awarded since 1901. Each prize consists of a medal, a personal diploma and a cash award of 10 million Swedishkronor (about 1.41 million U.S. dollars).

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet

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