Elizabeth Blackburn

Elizabeth Blackburn is an Australian-American molecular biologist whose research helped establish how telomeres protect chromosome ends and how telomerase maintains them. She shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Carol W. Greider: Carol W. Greider is an American molecular biologist who co-discovered telomerase with Elizabeth Blackburn. Greider joined Blackburn’s laboratory and identified telomerase activity in 1984.
Telomere: A telomere is a repetitive DNA–protein structure that protects the end of a linear chromosome. Blackburn characterized telomeric DNA and its role in safeguarding chromosome ends.
University of Cambridge: The University of Cambridge is a public research university in Cambridge, England. Blackburn completed doctoral research there under Frederick Sanger.
Cellular senescence: Cellular senescence is a state in which cells permanently stop dividing while remaining metabolically active. Telomere shortening can trigger senescence in some cells, connecting chromosome maintenance to aging biology.
Jack W. Szostak: Jack W. Szostak is an American molecular biologist whose work showed that telomeres protect chromosome ends. His collaboration with Blackburn linked telomere sequences to chromosome stability.
Telomerase: Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein enzyme that extends chromosome ends using its own RNA as a template. Blackburn and Greider discovered the enzyme that adds telomeric repeats.
Yale University: Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Blackburn conducted postdoctoral research at Yale before joining the University of California, Berkeley.
Cancer: Cancer is a group of diseases in which abnormal cells grow and spread without normal control. Many cancers reactivate telomerase, enabling continued cell division.
Frederick Sanger: Frederick Sanger was a British biochemist who developed methods for determining DNA sequences. Blackburn trained in Sanger’s laboratory, where she learned DNA sequencing techniques.
Tetrahymena: Tetrahymena is a genus of single-celled ciliates widely used in laboratory research. Blackburn studied its abundant chromosome ends to identify telomere DNA sequences.

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