Pelosi Congratulates UCSF's Elizabeth Blackburn for Receiving Nobel Prize in Medicine

Pelosi Congratulates UCSF's Elizabeth Blackburn for Receiving Nobel Prize in
Medicine

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the
following statement congratulating molecular biologist Elizabeth H. Blackburn
of the University of California, San Francisco, who today was named to receive
the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Dr. Blackburn shares the award with Carol W.
Greider of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Jack W. Szostak of
Harvard Medical School for their discovery of an enzyme that plays a key role
in normal cell function, as well as in cell aging and most cancers.

"Dr. Elizabeth H. Blackburn is a champion of innovation and an example of the
best in America's scientific community. She is an inspiration to all women
pursuing careers in the fields of technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Her Nobel Prize is a tribute to San Francisco's entrepreneurial spirit and to
our nation's continued leadership in the fields of science and medicine.

"Dr. Blackburn's groundbreaking discovery represents more than one small step
for biological research - it is a giant leap forward in the battle for a cure
to cancer and other devastating diseases. Thanks to her work, patients will
get better care; doctors will have better tools for treatment; and future
generations of researchers will gain a critical building block for the next
wave of discovery.

"I offer my warmest congratulations to Dr. Blackburn, her colleagues, Carol W.
Greider of Johns Hopkins University and Jack W. Szostak of Harvard Medical
School, and all of the administrators and researchers of UCSF. Their work is
truly changing the way we look at our future."

SOURCE Office of the Speaker of the House

Brendan Daly or Nadeam Elshami or Drew Hammill, +1-202-226-7616, all of the
Office of the Speaker of the House