Elizabeth Blackburn (Nobel laureate) 期待與台灣合作 !!

Nobel laureate hopes to collaborate on biological studies TAIPEI--Nobel laureate Elizabeth Blackburn said Saturday that she hopes to collaborate with Taiwan on studies of her Nobel winning research that sheds light on how diseases are closely linked to a structure that sits at the end of chromosomes. The Australian-born biologist is in Taiwan for the first time to speak on her groundbreaking research into the correlation between the structures, called "telomeres," and mortality risks and aging-related diseases.The recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine, now based at the University of California, San Francisco, expressed the hope that her visit will "prompt interest" in future collaboration. International collaboration is becoming the way to go in science because expertise and strengths can come from different places, she told CNA on the sidelines of a symposium in Taipei."There are wonderful scientists, studies and clinical opportunities for study in Taiwan, perhaps unique in some way," she added. Telomeres can be thought of as plastic caps on the ends of shoelaces, which stop things from unraveling. They protect the ends of chromosomes from damage when cells undergo division, but every time cells divide, their telomeres shorten and eventually they stop replicating and die.Age-related diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis, cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, diabetes, and immune dysfunction are often associated with telomere shortening in human cells, she said.

Having done a number of studies on what can be done to enhance telomere maintenance in people, Blackburn is now working on studies to find out what interventions can be demonstrably shown to either be useful or not useful."There's no shortage of ideas," she said. "This kind of work sort of provokes people to think about many things they think about, so one has to carefully design studies to test if somebody's favored idea is actually verifiable."Aiming to apply the knowledge to the arena of public health, the professor said she wants to devote herself to research that can affect a lot of people.