The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009
Awarded on: 2009-10-05
"for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase"
Affiliations:
- University of California – San Francisco, CA, USA
Elizabeth H. Blackburn
Born: 1948-11-26 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Gender: female
Field: Australian-born American biological researcher
Biography
Elizabeth Helen Blackburn is an Australian-American Nobel laureate who is the former president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. In 1984, Blackburn co-discovered telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes the telomere, with Carol W. Greider. For this work, she was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, sharing it with Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak, becoming the first Australian woman Nobel laureate.