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Strict Standards: Non-static method fileio::read_file() should not be called statically in /www/htdocs/sgraman/blog/scripts/sb_fileio.php on line 13
Strict Standards: Non-static method fileio::read_file() should not be called statically in /www/htdocs/sgraman/blog/scripts/sb_fileio.php on line 13
Strict Standards: Non-static method fileio::read_file() should not be called statically in /www/htdocs/sgraman/blog/scripts/sb_fileio.php on line 13
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Strict Standards: Non-static method fileio::file_listing() should not be called statically in /www/htdocs/sgraman/blog/scripts/sb_fileio.php on line 29
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You might call this week the Noble week as most of 2009 Noble Prizes will be announced this week. It kicks off today with "The Nobel Prize in Medicine 2009" as it's called officially. The prize is shared by Elizabeth Blackburn , Carol Greider and Jack Szostak , USA "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase".The three scientists have solved a major problem in biology: how the chromosomes can be copied in a complete way during cell divisions and how they are protected against degradation. They have shown that the solution is to be found in the ends of the chromosomes the telomeres — and in an enzyme that forms them — telomerase.
The long, threadlike DNA molecules that carry our genes are packed into chromosomes, the telomeres being the caps on their ends. Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak discovered that a unique DNA sequence in the telomeres protects the chromosomes from degradation. Carol Greider and Blackburn identified telomerase, the enzyme that makes telomere DNA. These discoveries explained how the ends of the chromosomes are protected by the telomeres and that they are built by telomerase.
If the telomeres are shortened, cells age. Conversely, if telomerase activity is high, telomere length is maintained, and cellular senescence is delayed. This is the case in cancer cells, which can be considered to have eternal life. Certain inherited diseases, in contrast, are characterized by a defective telomerase, resulting in damaged cells. The award of the Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of a fundamental mechanism in the cell, a discovery that has stimulated the development of new therapeutic strategies.
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