CMRI applauds the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine

CMRI scientists are delighted that the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak for their discovery of how the ends of chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. 

CMRI Director and Head of the Cancer Research Unit, Professor Roger Reddel is internationally recognised for his own work on telomere biology and telomerase.  Professor Roger Reddel said, "The telomerase story is an outstanding illustration of the value of basic research.  The work on telomeres and telomerase which are recognised by the 2009 Nobel Prize was done to solve a fundamental question about biological processes without any known relevance to cancer or any other human disease.  The research was immediately recognised by the scientific community as outstanding.  It was several years before other researchers made a connection between telomerase and cancer.  The research also has implications for ageing, and for a number of inherited diseases.”

The Nobel Prize to Australian-born Professor Elizabeth Blackburn and her colleagues is for discoveries about telomeres (which are the protective ends of the chromosomes into which all of our DNA is bundled), and the discovery of the telomerase enzyme.  It is now known that telomerase is an enzyme that 85% of all cancers depend on for their continuing growth.  This discovery may make it possible to treat most cancers by developing anti-cancer drugs that block the activity of telomerase.

Professor Roger Reddel and colleagues at CMRI including Associate Professor Tracy Bryan, Head of CMRI's Cell Biology Unit, and Dr Scott Cohen, are internationally recognised for their own work on telomere biology and telomerase.  Most recently, in 2007, Dr Cohen and his colleagues revealed the molecular composition of the telomerase enzyme.  A/Prof Bryan and Dr Cohen are continuing this work with the aim of revealing mechanistic and structural information about the enzyme, which will aid anti-cancer drug design.

"Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider showed amazing insight in predicting the existence of this enzyme and then setting out to find it.  Their work, along with that of Jack Szostak, is also a beautiful illustration of the potential value of basic research in model organisms," said A/Prof Tracy Bryan.