American Scientists Win Prestigious Nobel

Elizabeth Blackburn, born in Australia, from the University of California, San Fransisco, Jack Szostak, born in UK, from Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts and Carol Greider, from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland have collectively won the $1.42 million Nobel prize. They were awarded the honor for their work on discoveries that help shed light on understanding the health of a cell, disease mechanism and stirred up the development of potential therapies.

'Telomeres' the protective coverings on the ends of chromosomes, initiated the work of the trio. According to Elizabeth Blackburn, telomeres are like plastic tips on the ends of shoelaces. She goes on to say that chromosomes and the genes inside them would fall apart without the very important telomeres. Rene Toftgard, the Nobel committee member was quoted saying, "All genes are encoded by DNA and the DNA is present in the chromosomes in the cell nucleus and telomeres, they are the ends of the chromosomes and they have an important function to protect the chromosomes and maintain the integrity of the chromosomes."

The work carried out by these scientists, help lay a foundation for studies that link telomerase and telomeres to cancer and age-related conditions. This research has helped create a new outlook towards diseases and possible ways of their treatments. It has been extremely helpful in case of cancer, with certain studies have suggesting, telomerase is used to grow cancer cells uncontrollably. This has paved way for certain scientist to study drugs that can prove to be helpful to block the enzyme telomerase and nip the cancer in the bud. With their contribution to the medical world, the three American scientist have given a ray of hope to many suffering from incurable diseases.