DNA In Double Helix.
The telomeres, which exists at the ends of chromosomes are responsible for repair of chromosomes that may inadvertently gets faulty due to repeated cell divisions. There was a lot of work in this field since long. We congratulate the researchers who got the Nobel prizes for it. If the telomers remain intact the repair of gene also occurs perfectly ; aging and abnormalities are prevented. More research in this field may give eternal youth to human beings.A more remains to unfold in the future. Please read the full article in the BBC.CO.UK from which it has been clip marked.
"Their research on chromosomes helped lay the foundations of future work on cancer, stem cells and even human ageing, research areas that continue to be of huge importance to the scientists MRC funds and to the many people who will ultimately benefit from the discoveries they make."
Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak jointly share the award. Their work revealed how the chromosomes can be copied and has helped further our understanding on human ageing, cancer and stem cells. The answer lies at the ends of the chromosomes - the telomeres - and in an enzyme that forms them - telomerase. The 46 chromosomes contain our genome written in the code of life - DNA. When a cell is about to divide, the DNA molecules, housed on two strands, are copied. But scientists had been baffled by an anomaly. For one of the two DNA strands, a problem exists in that the very end of the strand cannot be copied. This year's prize winners solved the conundrum when they discovered how the telomere functions and found the enzyme that copies it. |