Three U.S. Scientists awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine

Three U.S. scientists, Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak, have received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their chromosome research.

The Karolinska Institute in Sweden says the trio was honoured for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase, research that has implications for cancer and aging research.

"These discoveries had a major impact within the scientific community," the Nobel citation said. "The discoveries by Blackburn, Greider and Szostak have added a new dimension to our understanding of the cell, shed light on disease mechanisms, and stimulated the development of potential new therapies."

Blackburn's parents, Harold and Marcia Blackburn, were both medical practitioners. Blackburn attended Broadland House School in Launceston, Tasmania. Her family then moved to Melbourne, Victoria, where she attended the University High School, Melbourne. After graduation from high school, Blackburn attended the University of Melbourne, where she earned her B.Sc. degree in 1970, and her M.Sc. degree in 1972, and Darwin College, Cambridge,[1] where she earned her Ph.D. (1975) from the University of Cambridge. Her postdoctoral study in molecular and cellular biology was at Yale University, Connecticut in 1975–77.