High honor
October 5, 2009
Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider und Jack Szostak were given the honor by Sweden's Karolinska Institute, for their discovery of telomerase, an enzyme that allows cells to divide continuously without dying.
Their work is seen as having an important impact on research into cancer and aging. Telomerase is called an "immortality enzyme;" it could play a role in treating the uncontrolled spread of cancer cells.
The three researchers will share the prize, worth 10 million Swedish crowns, or around a million euros ($1.4 million).
Solving problems on protecting chromosomes
Professor Hans Jornvall of the Nobel Assembly said their discoveries were crucial for research on cancer, aging and inherited genetic diseases,.
A statement by the assembly said the three scientists solved a fundamental problem in biology on "how chromosomes can be copied in a complete way and how they are protected against degradation."
The statement said the discovery of "how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase" had stimulated the development of "new therapeutic strategies."
Recipient says she was "thrilled"
"I was just thrilled," Greider told Swedish radio, saying she was doing laundry when she received the telephone call about the award from the Karolinska Institute.
American Greider is a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Australia-native Blackburn is a professor at the University of California in San Francisco, and Szostak, born in the UK, is a professor at the Harvard Medical School.
Last year, the medicine prize went to German virologist Harald zur Hausen, as well as French virologists Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montaigner, for their work on identifying viruses that cause AIDS and cervical cancer. Based on their research, a vaccine has been developed to protect against a certain kind of virus that can cause cervical cancer.
The Nobel in medicine is the first of a series of Nobel prizes that will be announced this week; the prize will be officially handed out in a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10.
jen/dpa/afp/AP
Editor: Andreas Illmer