Nobel Prize week kicked-off today with the announcement of the Prize in Physiology or Medicine. As predicted on these pages, Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak shared the award for discovering telomeres and telomerase. This is particularly good news for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which was home to Carol Greider when she made the pivotal discovery of isolating the RNA gene that encodes for the telomeric template.
What is a Telomere?
A telomere is a region (or cap) of repetitive DNA at the end of every chromosome that basically protects the chromosome from deconstructing. Telomeres are an important element of the cell cycle – after every round of cell division, telomeres get shorter to the point where they no longer exist (and the cell is then destroyed).
What is Telomerase?
Telomerase is an enzyme that works against this type of shortening – it replenishes the chromosome by adding DNA sequence repeats to telomeres regions. It is particularly important during prenatal development, where it buffers against cell-instability and aging. When we mature, telomerase “switches off” in virtually all tissues, ensuring the cell will only complete a certain number of divisions (e.g. 20-70) before dying. The switching off of telomerase is important process in cancer biology – unrestrained dividing (i.e. cell immortality) is a classic hallmark of the cancer cell.
How was the discovery made?
Blackburn moved to the University of California and recruited Carol Greider as a graduate student. In what the Lasker Foundation described as a “tour de force of biochemistry”, Greider purified the telomerase protein and demonstrated its enzymatic activity. Greider moved to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where she achieved the ultimate milestone of isolating the RNA gene that encodes for the telomeric template.
The award recognizes importance of telomeres and telomerase to understanding the fundamental properties of the cell and cell-division. Telomeres and telomerase are important components of aging and cancer research.
Blackburn, Greider, Szostak, and Gall are currently based in the University of California, San Francisco , Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and the Carnegie Institution respectively.
Thanks for all the info about this exciting news! This is very informative. Also, congratulations to CSHL for hosting YET ANOTHER Nobel prize winner!
Telomeres and telomerase are a milestone in the undestanding and development of treatments not only for cancer and aging but chronic disease as well. Thank you for the article!