Abstract
Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, is highlighted.
Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, was appointed president of the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in La Jolla, CA, effective January 1. Previously a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, she succeeds William R. Brody, PhD.
In 2009, Blackburn shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Carol Greider, PhD, and Jack Szostak, PhD, for uncovering how chromosomes are protected by telomeres, as well as discovering the enzyme telomerase, which maintains telomere ends and thereby plays a key role in cell replication, cell aging, and human cancers.
Blackburn served as president of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) from 2010 to 2011, and on the AACR Board of Directors from 2006 to 2009. In addition to the Nobel Prize, she has received numerous other awards for her scientific accomplishments, including the 2006 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research.
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