Elizabeth Helen Blackburn (born November 26, 1948) is an Australian-American Nobel laureate who was the former leader of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. In 1984, Blackburn helped discover telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes telomeres, along with Carol W. Greider. For this work, she received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, sharing it with Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak, becoming the first Australian woman to win a Nobel Prize.

She also worked in medical ethics and was controversially fired from the Bush administration's President's Council on Bioethics. 170 scientists signed an open letter to the president supporting her, stating that she was fired because of political opposition to her advice.

Early life and education

Elizabeth Helen Blackburn was born on November 26, 1948, in Hobart, Tasmania. She was the second of seven children, and both of her parents were doctors who treated families. When she was four years old, her family moved to Launceston, where she attended Broadland House Church of England Girls' Grammar School until she was sixteen. The school later combined with Launceston Church Grammar School.

After her family moved to Melbourne, Blackburn attended University High School. She earned very high scores on the final statewide matriculation exams at the end of her high school years. In 1970, she received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Melbourne, and in 1972, she earned a Master of Science degree in biochemistry from the same university. Blackburn later completed her PhD in 1975 at Darwin College, part of the University of Cambridge. Her PhD research focused on methods to sequence DNA using RNA, which she developed while working with Frederick Sanger at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. She also studied a bacteriophage called Phi X 174 during her research.

Career and research

During her postdoctoral work at Yale, Blackburn studied a single-celled organism called Tetrahymena thermophila. She noticed a repeating DNA sequence at the end of the organism’s chromosomes. This sequence, called TTAGGG, was repeated many times and formed a mirror-like pattern at the chromosome ends. These features helped Blackburn and her team learn more about the organism. Using the repeated DNA ends from Tetrahymena, Blackburn and Jack Szostak showed that these sequences could protect DNA in yeast from breaking down. This proved the sequences acted like telomeres, which are protective caps at the ends of chromosomes. Their research also showed that the telomere repeats in Tetrahymena were similar in other species, suggesting they evolved from a common ancestor. Blackburn and her team later found that the telomere length did not increase naturally during cell division. Instead, they suspected an enzyme helped add the repeating DNA sequences to the telomeres.

This idea led Blackburn and her student Carol W. Greider to discover an enzyme with special activity called reverse transcriptase. This enzyme could add DNA to the ends of chromosomes without leaving them incomplete. In 1985, they purified this enzyme and found it had both RNA and protein parts. The RNA part acted as a blueprint for adding the repeating DNA sequences, while the protein part helped carry out the process. This enzyme was named "telomerase," solving a long-standing mystery about how chromosomes stay protected during cell division.

In 1984, Blackburn was a researcher and professor at the University of California, San Francisco, studying telomeres. Telomeres are structures at the ends of chromosomes that protect them from damage.

Telomerase works by adding DNA building blocks to the ends of chromosomes. This allows DNA to be fully copied during cell division. However, DNA polymerase, the enzyme that copies DNA, can only work in one direction, causing telomeres to shorten over time. Blackburn and her team showed that telomerase prevents this shortening by adding new DNA to the ends, helping cells divide without losing important genetic information. This process slows down cellular aging.

In 1978, Blackburn joined the University of California, Berkeley, as a professor in the Department of Molecular Biology. In 1990, she moved to the University of California, San Francisco, where she led the Department of Microbiology and Immunology from 1993 to 1999. She was also a professor of biology and physiology at UCSF until 2015, when she became a professor emeritus.

Blackburn co-founded a company called Telomere Health, which tested telomere length in people. However, she later stopped working with the company. In 2015, she became the president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California. In 2017, she announced she would retire from the institute.

In 2009, Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on telomeres and telomerase. Their research showed that telomerase helps protect chromosomes during cell division, which has important effects on aging and disease. For example, adding telomerase to cells that lack it can help them avoid aging. Telomerase is also found in cancer cells, which may help them grow uncontrollably. Telomeres are linked to certain cancers, such as pancreatic, prostate, and lung cancer. Blackburn continues to study telomeres and telomerase at the University of California, San Francisco, focusing on how they affect aging.

In 2002, Blackburn joined the President’s Council on Bioethics. She supported research on human embryonic stem cells, which the Bush administration opposed. Her membership was ended by the White House in 2004, and many scientists criticized this decision. Blackburn believed her removal was due to political disagreements over stem cell research.

Blackburn is also on the Science Advisory Board of the Regenerative Medicine Foundation. In recent years, she has studied how stress affects telomeres and telomerase, especially in people who practice mindfulness meditation. She has appeared in science documentaries, including "Death by Design" and "Decoding Immortality." Studies suggest that long-term stress may cause telomeres to shorten, which can harm health. For example, women who experienced abuse had shorter telomeres than those who did not, possibly leading to worse health outcomes.

At the University of California, San Francisco, Blackburn continues to research telomeres and telomerase in many organisms, from yeast to humans. Her lab focuses on how telomeres are maintained and how this affects aging. Problems with telomere maintenance are linked to many chronic diseases, which can impact health.

Publications

Blackburn wrote her first book, The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer (2017), with Dr. Elissa S. Epel, a health psychologist at the Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions (AME) Center at the UCSF Center for Health and Community. In the book, Blackburn discusses how lifestyle choices, such as managing stress, exercising, eating well, and getting enough sleep, can help protect telomeres. She also explains telomere testing and provides advice about the importance of telomeres in the aging process. Blackburn’s research focused on telomeres and telomerase, an enzyme that helps repair telomeres. She discovered that telomeres, which are protective caps at the ends of chromosomes, play a key role in how cells age. The book explains how poor health can harm telomeres and reduce telomerase activity. Since telomeres shorten each time a cell divides, repairing them is important for long-term cell growth. Blackburn’s research showed that people who experience high stress often have lower telomerase activity, which weakens the ability of cells to divide. When telomeres become too short, cells can no longer divide, leading to tissue damage and aging in humans. Blackburn suggests that moderate exercise, even as little as 15 minutes daily, can help increase telomerase activity and repair telomeres.

Blackburn also explains that unhappiness can affect telomere length. In a study of divorced couples, their telomeres were found to be significantly shorter than those of couples in healthy relationships. Blackburn notes that stress from difficult life situations, such as divorce, can harm telomeres. She emphasizes that positive daily habits, like regular exercise, reduced stress, avoiding tobacco, and maintaining good sleep, can help keep telomeres longer and slow cell aging. Blackburn warns readers to be cautious of pills or creams that claim to lengthen telomeres or prevent aging. She states that these products lack scientific proof and that the best way to protect telomeres and boost telomerase activity is through a healthy lifestyle.

Personal life

While working at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, Blackburn met her husband, John Sedat. Sedat had accepted a job at Yale, where Blackburn decided to complete her postdoctoral work. "Thus it was that love brought me to a most fortunate and influential choice: Joe Gall's lab at Yale." They moved to New Haven and were married soon after.

Blackburn lives in both La Jolla and San Francisco with her husband. She has a son, born in 1986. She works as a mentor and advocate for scientific research and policy.

Awards and honours

Blackburn's awards and honors include:

• Eli Lilly Research Award for Microbiology and Immunology (1988)
• United States National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology (1990)
• Harvey Society Lecturer in New York (1990)
• Honorary Doctorate of Science from Yale University (1991)
• Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1991)
• Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1992
• Fellow of American Academy of Microbiology (1993)
• Foreign Associate of National Academy of Sciences (1993)
• Australia Prize (1998)
• Gairdner Foundation International Award (1998)
• Harvey Prize (1999)
• Keio Medical Science Prize (1999)
• Passano Award (1999)
• California Scientist of the Year (1999)
• American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award (2000)
• American Association for Cancer Research – G.H.A. Clowes Memorial Award (2000)
• American Cancer Society Medal of Honor (2000)
• Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (2000)
• AACR-Pezcoller Foundation International Award for Cancer Research (2001)
• General Motors Cancer Research Foundation Alfred P. Sloan Award (2001)
• E.B. Wilson Award of the American Society for Cell Biology (2001)
• Bristol-Myers Squibb Award (2003)
• Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation Medical Research Award (2003)
• Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for Medicine (2004)
• Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science of The Franklin Institute (2005)
• Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (2006) (shared with Carol W. Greider and Jack Szostak)
• Genetics Prize from the Peter Gruber Foundation (2006)
• Honorary Doctorate of Science from Harvard University (2006)
• Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences from the Wiley Foundation (shared with Carol W. Greider) (2006)
• Fellow of Australian Academy of Science (2007)
• Corresponding Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (2007)
• Recipient of the UCSF Women's Faculty Association Award
• Honorary Doctorate of Science from Princeton University (2007)
• Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize of Columbia University (2007) (shared with Carol W. Greider and Joseph G. Gall)
• L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science (2008)
• Albany Medical Center Prize (2008)
• Pearl Meister Greengard Prize (2008)
• Tasmanian Honour Roll of Women (2008)
• Victorian Honour Roll of Women (2010)
• Mike Hogg Award (2009)
• Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (2009) (shared with Carol W. Greider)
• The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009, shared with Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase"
• Companion of the Order of Australia (Australia Day Honours, 2010), for "eminent service to science as a leader in the field of biomedical research, particularly through the discovery of telomerase and its role in the development of cancer and ageing of cells and through contributions as an international adviser in Bioethics."
• Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales (FRSN) (2010)
• California Hall of Fame (2011)
• AIC Gold Medal (2012)
• The Royal Medal of the Royal Society (2015)
• Honorary Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford

Blackburn was elected:

• President of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (2016–2017)
• President of the American Association for Cancer Research for 2010
• President of the American Society for Cell Biology for 1998
• Foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences (1993)
• Member of the Institute of Medicine (2000)
• Board member of the Genetics Society of America (2000–2002)
• Member of the American Philosophical Society (2006)

In 2007, Blackburn was listed among Time magazine's 100 people who shape our world.