UCSF Scientist Receives Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Molecular biologist Elizabeth
H. Blackburn, PhD, 60, of the University of California, San Francisco, today
was named to receive the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Blackburn shares the award with Carol W. Greider of Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine and Jack W. Szostak of Harvard Medical School.

The scientists discovered an enzyme that plays a key role in normal cell
function, as well as in cell aging and most cancers. The enzyme is called
telomerase and it produces tiny units of DNA that seal off the ends of
chromosomes, which contain the body's genes. These DNA units -- named
telomeres -- protect the integrity of the genes and maintain chromosomal
stability and accurate cell division. They also determine the number of times
a cell divides -- and thus determine the lifespan of cells.

Telomerase is pronounced (tel-AH-mer-AZE). Telomere is pronounced
(TEEL-oh-mere).

The scientists' research sparked a whole field of inquiry into the possibility
that telomerase could be reactivated to treat such age-related diseases as
blindness, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative diseases, and
deactivated to treat cancer, in which it generally is overactive.

In recent years, Blackburn and colleagues have investigated the possibility
that life stress, the perception of life stress and lifestyle behaviors could
take a toll on telomerase and telomeres. Their findings may offer insight, at
the cellular level, into the impact of stress on early onset of age-related
diseases.

The scientists were named to receive the prize "for the discovery of how
chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the telomerase enzyme," according
to the Nobel committee in Stockholm, Sweden.

Evolution of discovery
In 1975 to 1977, Blackburn, working as a postdoctoral fellow at Yale
University with Joseph Gall, discovered the unusual nature of telomeres.

With Szostak, Blackburn established that the DNA repeats stabilize chromosomes
inside cells and predicted the existence of an enzyme that would add the
sequences to the ends of chromosomes.

In 1985, while a professor at University of California, Berkeley, Blackburn
and her then graduate student Greider reported the discovery of telomerase.
Their research showed that in some organisms, such as the single-celled pond
dweller Tetrahymena, telomerase continuously replenishes the chromosome's
telomeric tips. In humans, however, researchers, including Blackburn and her
group, showed that telomerase is damped down at certain times in the lives of
many types of cells, limiting their ability to self-replenish.

With this discovery, scientists saw the possibility of exploring whether, in
humans, the enzyme could be reactivated to prolong cell life to treat
age-related diseases, and deactivated to interrupt cancers.

Blackburn is the fourth UCSF scientist to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine.

UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through
advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences
and health professions, and excellence in patient care.

Read more about Blackburn's research at
http://www.ucsf.edu/nobel/2009/blackburn/

IMAGES AVAILABLE
Images of Elizabeth Blackburn and of telomeres can be downloaded:

Image #1 - Elizabeth Blackburn - head shot
http://www.ucsf.edu/_graphics/nobel/photos/blackburn_color2_full.jpg

Image #2 - Elizabeth Blackburn -- in the lab
http://www.ucsf.edu/_graphics/nobel/photos/blackburn_lab_full.jpg

Image #3 - Elizabeth Blackburn - with student at lab bench
http://www.ucsf.edu/_graphics/nobel/photos/blackburnwstudent_300.jpg

Image #4 - Damaged telomeres in yeast cell that was unable to divide.
http://www.ucsf.edu/_graphics/nobel/photos/telomeres_300.jpg

Image #5 - Damaged telomeres in pond microorganism cell trying,
unsuccessfully, to divide.
http://www.ucsf.edu/_graphics/nobel/photos/telomeres_300_2.jpg

Web: www.ucsf.edu

SOURCE University of California, San Francisco

Jennifer O'Brien of University of California, San Francisco, +1-415-476-2557,
jobrien@pubaff.ucsf.edu