Colleagues Salute Blackburn for Winning Lasker Award

The campus community recently gathered at UCSF Mission Bay to congratulate world-renowned cell biologist Elizabeth Blackburn, who has received the 2006 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research.
(See video.) Blackburn, PhD, 57, the Morris Herzstein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF, shares the award with two other scientists. They were honored for their prediction and discovery of the telomerase enzyme, which synthesizes telomeres, the tiny units of DNA that seal off the ends of chromosomes, protecting them and maintaining the integrity of the genes contained within them. Both telomeres and telomerase play a key role in cell aging and cancer. The scientists' research has laid the foundation for a whole field of inquiry into the possibility that the telomerase enzyme could be manipulated to treat cancer and age-related diseases like cardiovascular disease. Read the news release here. Campus leaders praised Blackburn for both her personal and her professional strengths at the reception in Genentech Hall on Oct. 5. David Kessler, MD, dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and vice chancellor for medical affairs, said her scientific achievements "reveal tenacity and brilliance" and described her as an "exceptional person." "Your calm and gentle way -- the elements of your character -- make you a wonderful mentor and colleague. That gentle way, combined with Liz's determination and focus, ...is what separates her apart from just about anybody else." Noting that she "never shied away from difficult challenges," Kessler pointed out Blackburn's reaction after being dismissed from President Bush's Council on Bioethics for speaking her mind on stem cell research. "For elegant and masterful science, for standing up to presidents, Liz, you epitomize what we aspire to as an institution. Congratulations." Chancellor Mike Bishop, MD, gave two of the many reasons why he admires Blackburn. First, he cited the remarkable way that a single theme has persisted throughout her career. "There are very few scientists who can own a field the way Liz owns telomeres and telomerase," Bishop said. Second, Bishop pointed out her splendid qualities as a colleague. "She shows us the way we should all behave as scientists, colleagues and human beings. In my many years at UCSF, I have encountered many staff, students, faculty, nurses, physicians and well-to-do benefactors who all express the pride they feel at being associated with UCSF in one way or another. Liz Blackburn is absolutely exemplary of where that pride comes from. Liz, thank you and congratulations." For her part, Blackburn remained true to her humble self, thanking colleagues for coming to the reception. "I've never felt anything so wonderful as this because this is my wonderful UCSF community," she said. "When thinking about prizes like this, it's really about prizes to honor the biomedical sciences... I'd like to think that these prizes are about all of us in our community."

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Elizabeth Blackburn, Lasker Award Reception UCSF's Elizabeth Blackburn Receives Lasker Award Chancellor Bishop discusses the significance of Elizabeth Blackburn's award-winning research Influence: The Stem Cell Freeze: Blackburn's White House Firing Inflames Science Policy Issues UCSF Magazine Photos/Lisa Cisneros