Trio earn Nobel in medicine
October 6, 2009
Karl Ritter
Matt Moore
STOCKHOLM–Americans Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak are the winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer.
It was the first time two women have been among the winners in medicine since the first Nobel Prizes were handed out in 1901.
The trio solved the mystery of how chromosomes, the rod-like structures that carry DNA, protect themselves from degrading when cells divide. The Nobel citation said the laureates found the solution in the ends of the chromosomes – features called telomeres that are often compared to the plastic tips at the end of shoelaces that keep those laces from unravelling.
The prize-winners' work, done in the late 1970s and 1980s, set the stage for research suggesting that cancer cells use telomerase to sustain their uncontrolled growth. Scientists are studying whether drugs that block the enzyme can fight the disease. In addition, scientists believe that the DNA erosion the enzyme repairs might play a role in some illnesses.
The award includes a $1.5 million (Canadian) purse split three ways among the winners. Ceremonies are in Stockholm on Dec. 10.
Blackburn, 60, and Greider, 48, were honoured in 1998 with Canadian prizes – Gairdner Awards. And Szostak was a 1972 grad in cell biology from McGill University.
London-born Szostak, 56, has been at Harvard Medical School since 1979 and is a professor of genetics. McGill University described Szostak in a release Monday as a "brilliant student" who entered McGill in 1968 at the age of 15.
Canadians Ernest McCulloch and James Till were believed to be top contenders for the prize for their discovery of stem cells in the 1960s.
But Sunday in Toronto, the 78-year-old Till told The Canadian Press in a phone interview that he and McCulloch, 83, did not expect to win because "it's been so long" since their discovery of adult stem cells.
With files from The Canadian Press
Toronto Star
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