Elizabeth Blackburn

Elizabeth Blackburn

Born November 26, 1948 (1948-11-26) (age 62)
Hobart, Tasmania
Residence US
Citizenship Australian and American
Fields molecular biology
Institutions Yale University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, San Francisco, the Salk Institute
Alma mater

University of Melbourne,

University of Cambridge
Doctoral students include Carol W. Greider
Notable awards Heineken Prize, Lasker Award, Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science (2008) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2009)

Elizabeth Helen Blackburn, AC, FRS (born 26 November 1948 in Hobart, Tasmania) is an Australian-born American biological researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies the telomere, a structure at the end of chromosomes that protects the chromosome. Blackburn co-discovered telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes the telomere. For this work, she was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, sharing it with Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak. She also worked in medical ethics, and was controversially dismissed from the President's Council on Bioethics.

Contents

Work in molecular biology

In 1978, Blackburn joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley in the Department of Molecular Biology. In 1990, she moved across the San Francisco Bay to the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where she served as the Department Chairwoman from 1993 to 1999. Blackburn is currently the Morris Herzstein Professor of Biology and Physiology at UCSF, and a non-resident fellow of the Salk Institute. She is the president-elect of the American Association for Cancer Research. In recent years Blackburn and her colleagues have been investigating the effect of stress on telomerase and telomeres.

Bioethics

Tiarne Blackburn was appointed a member of the President's Council on Bioethics in 2001. She supported human embryonic cell research, in opposition to the Bush Administration. Her Council terms were terminated by White House directive on 27 February 2004.[1] This was followed by expressions of outrage over her removal by many scientists, who maintained that she was fired because of political opposition to her advice.[2]

"There is a growing sense that scientific research — which, after all, is defined by the quest for truth — is being manipulated for political ends," wrote Blackburn. "There is evidence that such manipulation is being achieved through the stacking of the membership of advisory bodies and through the delay and misrepresentation of their reports."[3][4]

Blackburn serves on the Science Advisory Board of the Genetics Policy Institute.

Personal

Blackburn is married to John W. Sedat, and has a son, Benjamin.[5]

Awards and honors

In 2007, Blackburn was listed among Time Magazine's The TIME 100—The People Who Shape Our World.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Blackburn, E.; Rowley, J. (2004). "Reason as Our Guide". PLoS Biology 2 (4): e116. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0020116. PMID 15024408. 
  2. ↑ AP (2004-03-19). "Scientists rally around stem cell advocate fired by Bush". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/2004-03-19-fired-bioethicist_x.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-30. 
  3. ↑ Bioethics and the Political Distortion of Biomedical Science Elizabeth Blackburn, N Engl J Med 350:1379-1380 (April 1, 2004)
  4. ↑ A Nobel prize for a Bush critic By Andrew Leonard, Salon.com, 5 October 2009 Free text. Extensive quotation from Blackburn's article.
  5. ↑ UCSF’s Elizabeth Blackburn Receives Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, By Jennifer O'Brien. Press release.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009". Nobel Foundation. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2009/. Retrieved 2009-10-05. 
  7. ↑ "Blackburn, Greider, and Szostak share Nobel". Dolan DNA Learning Center. http://blogs.dnalc.org/dnaftb/2009/10/05/blackburn-greider-and-szostak-share-nobel-for-telomeres/. Retrieved 2009-10-05. 
  8. ↑ It’s an Honour
  9. ↑ http://www.aacr.org/home/about-us/governance/officers.aspx
  10. ↑ Alice Park (2007-05-03). "The Time 100: Elizabeth Blackburn". Time Magazine. http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/time100/article/0,28804,1595326_1595329_1616029,00.html. Retrieved 2008-05-30.