Blackburn Wins Wiley Prize

Elizabeth H. Blackburn, PhD, Morris Herztein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, will receive the fifth annual Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences. Blackburn will be awarded jointly along with Carol Greider, Daniel Nathans Professor and Director of Molecular Biology & Genetics at Johns Hopkins University. The Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences recognizes contributions that have opened new fields of research or have advanced novel concepts or their applications in a particular biomedical discipline. It honors a specific contribution or a series of contributions that demonstrate significant leadership and innovation. Blackburn and Greider are the first women to receive the Wiley Prize in its five-year history. The award, which is given by the Wiley Foundation, includes a $25,000 grant, and the opportunity to present a public lecture at The Rockefeller University, the New York City venue for the April 7 awards ceremony. Blackburn and Greider were chosen for their discovery of telomerase, the enzyme that maintains chromosomal integrity and the recognition of its importance in aging, cancer and stem cell biology, according to Gunter Blobel, Chairman of the awards jury for the Wiley Prize. Blackburn's laboratory at UCSF Mission Bay focuses on telomeres, the DNA-protein complexes that cap the ends of chromosomes and promote genetic stability. Each time a cell divides, a portion of telomeric DNA dwindles away, and after many rounds of cell division, so much telomeric DNA has diminished that the aged cell stops dividing. Thus, telomeres play a critical role in determining the number of times a cell divides, its health, and its life span. These factors, in turn, affect the health of the tissues that cells form. Telomerase is an enzyme that replenishes a portion of telomeres with each round of cell division, and protects telomeres. Oxidative stress, which causes DNA damage, has been shown to hasten the shortening of telomeres in cell culture. The Wiley Prize honor was bestowed last year on Peter Walter, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, and professor and chairman of the Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics at UCSF, and Kazutoshi Mori, a Professor of Biophysics in the Graduate School of Science at Kyoto University in Japan, for their discovery of the novel pathway by which cells regulate the capacity of their intracellular compartments to produce correctly folded proteins for export. For the complete story, go here. Links: Blackburn Lab Study Suggests Link Between Psychological Stress and Aging