Nobel for Cell Preservation Researchers Israel today

Three researchers from the United States together won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discovery that helped research cancer • The reasons for the award committee: The discovery gave another dimension to understanding the cell mechanism • The winners will be awarded a prize worth about NIS 6 million

• Grader

• Blackburn

• Sotek

The joint venture of American researchers Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Grader and Jack Sotek ended in a round of applause yesterday, when the Nobel Committee solemnly announced that the three, who have been researching the body cell preservation mechanism together for nearly 30 years, are the 100th prize winners in medical sciences. .

"Their discovery gave us another dimension to understanding the cell mechanism, shedding more light on the disease development process and stimulating the development of new approaches to healing," wrote the award committee members in their reasons for giving it to three, whose discovery of body cells protects against erosion has implications for cancer research. , As well as many hereditary diseases.

Blackburn, Grader, and Sotek have solved one of the big questions in biological science: how, during the cell division process, the chromosomes that make up our DNA remain intact. The three have shown that the solution lies in the chromosomes and the enzyme that makes it up. (From Greek, "the final part"), which protects them from erosion.When the "telomer" shortens the aging cells, however when it functions properly, the length of the enzyme is maintained and the cell is preserved intact.

As mentioned, detection is important for the study of cancer, since cancer cells are considered a kind of "eternal" cells that never age, as well as for understanding some inherited diseases resulting from a damaged "telomer" that causes damage to the cell.

The investigation of the "telomere" also carries lines in the study of the phenomenon of aging, and it is possible that through it it will be possible to prolong life with an understanding of the way to stop the aging of body cells.

60-year-old Blackburn, 57-year-old Sotek and 48-year-old Grader will share a prize worth about NIS 6 million, which will be awarded at a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10.