Three Americans Share Nobel Prize for Medicine

[Barack_America]

Three Americans Share Nobel Prize for Medicine

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded this year to three American scientists who solved a problem of cell biology with deep relevance to cancer and aging. The three will receive equal shares of a prize worth around $1.4 million.

The recipients solved a longstanding puzzle involving the ends of chromosomes, the giant molecules of DNA that embody the genetic information. These ends, called telomeres, get shorter each time a cell divides and so serve as a kind of clock that counts off the cell’s allotted span of life.

The three winners are Elizabeth H. Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco, Carol W. Greider of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Jack W. Szostak of Massachusetts General Hospital. Only eight women have previously won the Nobel prize in Medicine or Physiology, and it is the first time any science Nobel has been awarded to more than one woman.

<snip>

Though Americans have once again made a clean sweep of the Nobel medicine prize, two of the three winners are immigrants. Dr. Blackburn was born in Tasmania, Australia, and has dual citizenship; Dr. Szostak was born in London. Dr. Blackburn came to the United States in the 1970s because it was “notably attractive” as a place to do science...

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/science/06nobel.html?hp

(emphasis mine)

cross-posted with LBN because I admittedly super excited about this!

[maddezmom]

1. K&R

:kick: It's a great story!

[Barack_America]

2. Definitely agree!

Sorry about the duplicate topic in LBN. I looked over the first page and didn't see it. I guess the better the news the faster it sinks!

[maddezmom]

3. no problem

about the dupe. Happens all the time. :hug:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. Bush removed Blackburn from The President's Council on Bioethics by Bush.

Probably because she had some.

[applegrove]

5. The discovery could tell us more about cancer. Good news indeed.

[inna]

6. i worked with Liz Blackburn for several years,

have several publications with her - all of a sudden it looks like a great thing to have on a resume. :)

she is truly one of the best, kindest, most intelligent, ethical and honest people i've ever met in my entire life.

i'm so very, very, very happy for her. :bounce:

[Duppers]

7. Wow! Inna!

Kudos to you too! :yourock:


This work they have done is extremely important.


(My kid is in grad school at Hopkins and they're all abuzz today over this.)