Nobel in medicine honors discoveries of telomeres and telomerase
Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak will share the prize
Sometimes stories that start with pond scum can have good endings. In the case of the single-celled organism called Tetrahymena thermophila, important bits of DNA at the ends of its chromosomes led to a Nobel prize for three scientists.
Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak will share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovering telomeres, the caps on the end of chromosomes, and telomerase, the enzyme that tacks those caps on, Sweden’s Nobel Foundation announced October 5.