Elizabeth Blackburn, a participant in the Shamatha Project meditation
research, the most detailed look into deep meditation ever conducted,
has received the Nobel prize for medicine, along with two other
colleagues for her research on telomeres.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/05/
AR2009100500912.html
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3 Americans share 2009 Nobel medicine prize
By KARL RITTER and MATT MOORE
The Associated Press
Monday, October 5, 2009; 6:56 AM
STOCKHOLM -- Americans Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and
Jack W. Szostak won the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for
discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells, an
insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer.
The trio solved the mystery of how chromosomes, the rod-like
structures that carry DNA, protect themselves from degrading when
cells divide.
The Nobel citation said the laureates found the solution in the ends
of the chromosomes - structures called telomeres that are often
compared to the plastic tips at the end of shoe laces that keep those
laces from unraveling.
Blackburn and Greider discovered the enzyme that builds telomeres -
telomerase - and the mechanism by which it adds DNA to the tips of
chromosomes to replace genetic material that has eroded away.
The prize-winners' work set the stage for research suggesting that
cancer cells use telomerase to sustain their uncontrolled growth.
Scientists are studying whether drugs that block the enzyme can fight
the disease. In addition, scientists believe that the DNA erosion the
enzyme repairs might play a role in some illnesses.
"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," the prize committee said in its citation. (...)
