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Elizabeth Blackburn from UCSF wins Nobel Prize

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SF Senior Care Examiner

AP Photo

Elizabeth Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her work on cellular aging.

Blackburn shares the $1.4 million prize with two colleagues, Carol W. Greider of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Jack W. Szostak of Harvard Medical School. Together they discovered the mechanism that controls cellular division and limits the number of times a cell can divide.

 Telomerase is an enzyme, or chemical, that works on telomeres, which are “caps” located at the ends of chromosomes in each cell in our bodies. Every time a cell divides, these caps lose a small piece causing the telomere to shorten. After many replications these telomeres become too short to replicate again. This is thought to be the mechanism of cellular aging, which in turn causes our bodies to age. Telomerase limits the amount of shortening that occurs.

Blackburn, Greider, and Szostak’s research has implications in research on both cancer and aging.

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Slideshow: Elizabeth Blackburn

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(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Slideshow: Elizabeth Blackburn

, SF Senior Care Examiner

Liz Macera is a nurse practitioner who specializes in the care of older adults. She is a member of the Board of Directors for Stagebridge in Oakland, the country's first theater company for older adults. Dr. Macera earned a PhD in gerontological nursing at the University of California, San...

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