Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Ph.D.

2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
2008 L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science
2007 TIME Magazine’s 100 Most influential People

Dr. Blackburn won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009 for discovering the molecular nature of telomeres, the ends of chromosomes that serve as protective caps essential for preserving genetic information, and for co-discovering telomerase, an enzyme that maintains telomere ends.

She is the Morris Herztein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Blackburn and her research team at UCSF work with various cells including human cells, with the goal of continued understanding of telomerase and telomere biology.
Blackburn earned her B.Sc. (1970) and M.Sc. (1972) degrees from the University of Melbourne in Australia, and her Ph.D. (1975) from the University of Cambridge in England. She did her postdoctoral work in Molecular and Cellular Biology from 1975 to 1977 at Yale.