Elizabeth blackburn nobel prize biography

Australian-born American biological researcher

Elizabeth Helen Blackburn (born 26 November ) is an Australian-American Nobel laureate who is the former president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

In , Blackburn co-discovered telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes the telomere, with Carol W. Greider.

Elizabeth blackburn nobel prize biography

For this work, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, sharing it with Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak, becoming the first Australian woman Nobel laureate.

She also worked in medical ethics, and was controversially dismissed from the Bush administration's President's Council on Bioethics.

scientists signed an open letter to the president in her support, maintaining that she was fired because of political opposition to her advice.^[3]

Early life and education

Elizabeth Helen Blackburn, the second of seven children, was born in Hobart, Tasmania, on 26 November , with both her parents being family physicians.^&#