Short Biography

Short Biography

Elizabeth Helen Blackburn is an Australian American winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, research and former president of Salk institute for biological studies. She was born on 26 November 1948 to physician parent in Hobart, Tasmania. They lived with her family in Hobart, Tasmania until when she was four years when her family decided to relocate to Launceston. At Launceston, she attended grammar school at Broadband House Church of England Girls for the next 12 years until when her parents again relocated to Melbourne. At Melbourne, he attended University High School and scored very high grades in the national matriculation exams. After this, she joined the University of Melbourne and studied biochemistry. She acquired a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry in 1970 and Master of Science in 1972 from the same university. In 1975 she joined the University of Cambridge as a PhD student and developed procedures of sequencing DNA and RNA with Frederick Sanger. While researching and studying in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the university, she met john Sedat who later became her husband (Hoh 2017, 615-620). When john Sedat related to the US at Yale, Blackburn went along and that where she completed her PhD and did most her prodromal research. Elizabeth and Sedat together have a son called Benjamin who live in San Francisco. Sedat is one of the people in her family that has had a significant influence on Elizabeth Blackburn since his specialization in molecular biology helped her to get connected to the best laboratories in the world like the Yale Laboratories where Sedat was working.

Elizabeth Blackburn began in her research in Yale where she was investigating the Tetrahymena thermophile protozoan where she found out that there was a recurrent codon at the farthest point of the linear rDNA. She noticed that the hexanucleotide has a TTAGGG sequence which at the end of the day enabled them to understand that the chromosome’s replication did not add to the length of the telomere. This research was the foundation for the discovery of the telomerase enzyme, which explained the nightmare of many scientists at that time (Dutra et al. 2019, 5). Her research has usually been on DNA sequencing and its applications in understanding as well as solving human problems whose origin is genetic makeup and functionality. Therefore, the career experience of Elizabeth Blackburn is in molecular biology and biochemistry since she has majored in studying genes and its components such as DNA and RNA.

She is also a renowned speaker, mentor and advocate for the fight against cancer. She has taught and inspired many scientists who have gone on to work and do research which has lead to great discoveries. One of the renowned scientists who was natured by Elizabeth Blackburn is Carol Greider with whom she researched them, Nobel, winning research in 2009.

Major Scientific Achievements and Impacts

Elizabeth Blackburn has done extensive work on DNA and its components. One of her scientific achievements was in shedding more light on the genetic makeup and the roles of telomeres which he discovered to be a DNA segment found at the end of the chromosomes. She began her study of chromosomes back in the University of Cambridge and went on to complete it at Yale. Her studies of the Tetrahymena protozoa helped her to sequence the DNA of the telomeres of the organisms and noticed that the telomeres were made up of segments of DNA that were repetitive. Elizabeth also discovered that telomeres had a particular DNA which prevented chromosomes from getting broken down. Her work on the study of DNA, telomeres, and their sequencing has had a lot of people to many scholars and life at large. Her work on telomeres has launched a hot field in science called the study of telomeres where many scholars are studying telomeres and how they can get applied in solving some of the problems people are having. Her studies on DNA sequencing and telomeres has been very fundamental in helping people to develop a hypothesis on the cure for scourges like cancer as well as understanding while people age. Her work on telomerase which is an enzyme which protected the DNA at the end of the telomeres has had many scientists relating those principles to the reason why people had bone marrow problems (Monaghan 2014, 15). Researchers have used her research to chase down the mutant component of the telomerase RNA gene and how it causes telomeres to become short prematurely and at the end of the day result in the failure of the bone marrow. This aspect has enabled scientists to understand why people with bone marrow problems do not live past their 20s and 30s.

In 2009 Dr Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for solving a significant biological problem which was discovering how chromosomes could get entirely copied during cell division and how their degradation got averted. According to the discovery, the DNA enzyme called telomerase replenished the telomere to allow cell division to occur entirely and prevent the loss of genetic data in the telomere which explain why people age. The whole research on DNA and telomeres began in the University of Cambridge where Elizabeth was working on Tetrahymena DNA sequencing methods on bacteriophage under the then Nobel winner Frederick Sanger in her graduate program. Frederick Sanger was at that time working on sequencing RNA and was trying to develop methods of sequencing DNA. After extensive research, Sanger and group succeed in developing a methodology for sequencing DNA (Larramendy 2016, 10). After graduating and joining Yale, she continues with her work on exploring the phenomenon of tiny structure that cap ends of chromosomes and create its stability. In the University of Berkeley, he discovered the relationship between the size of the telomere and its capacity to duplicate through division. In 1985 when working with her graduate student, Carol Greider isolated an enzyme called telomerase which synthesized the DNA of the telomeres and in so doing, maintained the length of the telomeres. It was during this study that she bumped into the fact that these caps on the telomeres reduced the ageing of cells which was central in causing ageing. This phenomenon is because telomeres shorten when cell divide and if the protective cap can get sustained, then ageing can get prevented.

Her research was also fundamental in explaining how cancer would get controlled. Her studies demystified the old theories that blocking telomerase activity cured cancer. In her experiments, she discovered that dumping down the level of telomerase made the cancerous cells less pathogenic. Even though this discovery is still getting research, it was an eye-opener to the direction the world would take in the fight against cancer. This studies helped her, and her colleagues got the Nobel Prize of Physiology or medicine in 2009.

Currently, she is still researching how stress is associated with people who have a high shortening of telomeres which eventually accelerates ageing. She says that stress reduces telomere functioning in the body, which reduces cell division and the eventual rapid ageing (Dutra et al. 2019, 5). To counter the low telomere functioning of bodies of people who lead a stressful life, Blackburn suggests that they do physical exercise for at least 15 minutes every day. Exercise stimulates the activity of telomeres and cell division in the body.

My Reflection

Elizabeth Blackburn is a hardworking woman and scholar based on her achievements and awards she has for her work on academic. One of the things I like about Blackburn is the fact that she focuses on what he does and what she wants. If you study her groundbreaking research on telomeres, you understand that the whole research began way back to when she was pursuing her masters. Even after changing universities through her career, she never changed her topic. She just stuck to the study of DNA and telomerase in telomeres (Blackburn and Elissa 2017, 20). Her work is also meant to help humankind to solve daily problems rather than just getting fame and academic credentials. For instance, through her work, people now understand how ageing occurs, and people are already researching drugs that can reduce ageing in people.

Furthermore, her research is also shifting gears in the arena of combating cancer, where her principles are getting used to fighting cancer, and its effects. Currently, she is working on understanding the relationship of the telomeres activity with stress, whereby she has already discovered that stress reduces the cell activity and division in the telomeres, which causes effects like ageing. According to her, people who lead a stressful life and are unlikely to avoid that need to engage in physical exercise to increase the telomere activity and avert the risks that come with low telomere activity. This aspect shows her generosity by researching to help humanity solve problems like cancer, bone marrow failure, and ageing.

Besides, her family life is something that is fascinating and which we ought to copy. Even though she is busy with research and give speeches on her work, she still finds time to enjoy life with her family. In one of her interview, she talked about how she discusses her family seriously and ensure that she spends enough time with them.

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