Three American scientists were awarded a Nobel Prize Monday for discovering how cells protect their genetic material as they divide repeatedly throughout an organism’s life, a crucial discovery with fundamental implications for research on aging, cancer and other diseases.
Elizabeth H. Blackburn of the University of California in San Francisco, Carol W. Greider of Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and Jack W. Szostak of Harvard Medical School in Boston shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. It was the first time two women shared the prize. Blackburn was born in Australia and has dual U.S. and Australian citizenship.