Loose Ends

[ellestra]

The first real Nobel Prize was announced today - as always they announce only one category a day and today's was for Physiology or Medicine. The winners are Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak for their research on telomeres - the DNA sequences that ends chromosomes. Telomeres are highly repetitive sequences on the end of chromosomes that don't code anything but are responsible for protecting the ends of chromosomes, play crucial role in meiosis by keeping homologous chromosomes together and are essential for DNA replication. Telomeres have been called the molecular clock as, in animal cells, they get shorter with each cell division. The enzyme telomerase is responsible for giving them their initial length in embryonic cells and gives the stem cells their ability to divide continuously. When I heard about it my first thought was - how come they didn't get it yet. Same was with the one for proteasome. In other words - finally.

PS. Two women - and as we move to more recent times there'll be more.