Elizabeth Blackburn Biography
Australian biochemist & Discoverer of the enzyme telomerase.
| Name | Elizabeth Helen Blackburn |
| Parents | Marcia Constance Jack and Harold Stewart Blackburn |
| Fields | Cytogenetics, biology and physiology |
| Awards | NAS Prize in Molecular Biology (1990), Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2009)... |
| Spouse | John W. Sedat |
| Children | Benjamin David |
Elizabeth Blackburn was born on November 26th, 1948 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Family:
Elizabeth parents Marcia Constance Jack and Harold Stewart Blackburn worked as general practitioners, and she was one of their seven children.
Studies:
She later attended Launceston Broadland House Church of England Girls’ Grammar School based in Tasmania where she finished her secondary education. Consequently, she enrolled at the University of Melbourne from which she graduated in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry.
Her doctorate from Cambridge University done under the supervision of Frederick Sanger who is one of the greatest biochemists on earth.
Career and research:
After completing her PhD, Blackburn moved to Yale University for postdoctoral research. She started studying telomeres during this work that are genetic stability factors at chromosome ends.
Between 1978, Carol Greider and Blackburn worked as assistant professors at Berkeley. Here they discovered telomerase which is an enzyme that increases telomere length and protects DNA during cell replication. It proved significant in understanding cellular aging and various diseases among them cancer.
Telomerase:
One of the greatest successes in her career was the discovery of telomerase. In 1984, she and Carol Greider uncovered an enzyme with the name telomerase. Telomerase is an enzyme that adds repetitive DNA sequences to the end of chromosomes, thereby compensating for their reduction during cell division. This has not only given a better understanding of basic cellular processes but also opened new tracks for research into aging and diseases connected with telomeres.
She then became a professor at UCSF where she continued her research work on genetics and cell biology; she still holds this position up to now as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Regenerative Medicine Foundation (formerly Genetics Policy Institute) as well as Professor in Biochemistry/ Biophysics Department, and head of Blackburn Laboratory which is leading globally in telomerase manipulations in cells.
Nobel Prize:
In 2009 Elizabeth Blackburn along with Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery about how telomeres protect chromosomes through telomerase. This finding had significant impacts on medical biology by revealing more about cellular aging and cancer. They showed how each cell division results in the shortening of telomeres while prognosing that it can be checked by dialysis, also known as telomerase.
Private life:
Married to John Sedat, a prominent scientist specializing in cellular biology who gave birth to Benjamin Sedat among other sons.
Summary:
An Australian biochemist who discovered an enzyme called telomerase that helps extend telomeres and protect chromosomes which was paramount towards our understanding of cellular aging and its relationship with cancer. She won a Nobel Prize because she made major contributions to Physiology or Medicines back in 2009.
Did you know...
From 2003 till present time- US citizens too.
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