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Symbolizing a major triumph for UCSF, the University of California and the scientific community at large, molecular biologist Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, on October 5 became UCSF's fourth scientist and first woman to receive the prestigious Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
When the phone rang at 2 a.m. that morning, Blackburn was surprised to hear a voice from the Nobel committee in Sweden. Although there had been media speculation for weeks, months, even years that she would be named a Nobel laureate, she says, "There's so much wonderful science that goes on, with so many fantastic scientists, that the chances of it happening to you seem very remote. So I was pretty excited when it did."
UC: Home to the Most Nobel Laureates
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Blackburn shares the award with her former graduate student at UC Berkeley Carol W. Greider, PhD, now of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Jack W. Szostak, PhD, of Harvard Medical School. The scientists were recognized for the discovery of how chromosomes, which contain the body's genes, are protected by telomeres and telomerase. Telomeres are the protective ends of chromosomes – analogous to the tips at the ends of shoelaces – and telomerase is the enzyme that restores them as they get worn down with cell division.
The scientists' research sparked a whole field of inquiry into treating age-related diseases such as blindness, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disease, and cancer. As a co-investigator with researchers at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at UCSF, Blackburn has reported on the correlation between chronic stress and lower levels of telomerase. Now studies are underway on a possible correlation between nutrition and stress-reduction activities and higher levels of telomerase. The findings may offer insight, at the cellular level, into the impact of stress on early onset of age-related diseases and of stress-reduction on their treatment.
By contrast, most cancer cells have supercharged overactive telomerase, a fact that scientists, including Blackburn, are hoping to use against cancer. As a member of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Blackburn is making telomerase poisonous, forcing cells' telomeres to glue together, which causes the cancer cells to commit suicide.
UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, says, "Dr. Blackburn's research over the course of more than three decades has revolutionized scientists' understanding of the way in which cells function. Her generous spirit, curiosity and highly collaborative nature have led her to forge research partnerships that have significantly broadened scientists' capacity to understand the remarkable telomerase enzyme."
UC: Home to the Most Nobel Laureates
When counting Nobel Prize laureates by university, the University of California system leads the pack with a total of 35 associated laureates in the categories of chemistry, economics, physics, peace, and physiology or medicine. Harvard University is ranked second with 32. Within the UC system, UCSF has the highest number of living Nobel laureates in physiology or medicine (four). They include Blackburn, J. Michael Bishop, MD, Harold Varmus, MD, and Stanley Prusiner, MD. Bishop and Varmus received their award in 1989 for discovery of proto-oncogenes, showing that normal cellular genes can be converted to cancer genes. Prusiner won the prize in 1997 for discovery of an entirely new class of proteins called prions, which cause rare, slowly progressing brain diseases such as mad cow disease in animals and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
For more information on Elizabeth Blackburn's Nobel Prize-winning research, contact Janice Eisele at 415/502-6436 or JEisele@support.ucsf.edu.
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