Science, politics cheer Aussie's Nobel effort

Stuart Rintoul October 07, 2009

ELIZABETH Blackburn's Nobel Prize was a great day for Australian science and would be an inspiration for young women considering a career in science, Kevin Rudd said yesterday.
"Australia has made frequent contributions to the world's great discoveries and Professor Blackburn's work continues that proud tradition," he said.
"She must also be acknowledged for her reputation as an Australian scientist who places as much weight on the ethics of research as on the practice of science."
The Prime Minister said Professor Blackburn, the first Australian woman to win a Nobel Prize, was in good company, with other Australian Nobel laureates including Howard Florey, Peter Doherty, Robin Warren and Barry Marshall.
Malcolm Turnbull said the prize was well-deserved. "Her insights have provided a foundation for our understanding of ageing and disease that has added enormously to medical treatments and healthcare throughout the world," the Opposition Leader said.
Tasmanian-born Professor Blackburn, 60, was recognised along with her US colleagues Carol Greider and Jack Szostak for discovering how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the role of an enzyme called telomerase in maintaining or stripping away this vital shield -- a key to assisting chromosomes in cells to stay eternally young.
In San Francisco, where she is a professor at the University of California, she said her research could translate into a "fountain of youth", with the promise of human bodies that do not
grow frail with time or sick with cancer.
"We don't think clocks will be turned back, but it is a question of whether we will extend our health span," she said.
Acting Science Minister Craig Emerson said Professor Blackburn's work was "incredibly valuable to the human race", offering "the prospect of going further down the path of dealing with debilitating diseases which so
far have defeated scientific research".
Australian and international scientists applauded the award. "The Nobel Prize is a marvellous recognition of Elizabeth's outstanding contribution to molecular biology and medical science," said Kurt Lambeck, president of the Australian Academy of Science.
"It reminds us once again of the importance of science for the long-term benefit to the community as a whole."
He said that although Professor Blackburn was now based in the US, she had maintained "robust connections with her Australian peers", spending at least a month a year in Australia.
At the Melbourne-based Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, director Doug Hilton said: "It is wonderful to see this recognition for basic science that was pursued for curiosity's sake, and which has ended up having such major implications for cancer and ageing."
At Sydney's Children's Medical Research Institute, Roger Reddel said "the telomerase story is an outstanding illustration of the value of basic research" initially undertaken without any known relevance to cancer or any other disease.
Professor Blackburn was famously appointed, then removed, from then US president George W. Bush's bioethics advisory council because she objected to the practice of having religion rather than science guide its work, especially in the field of embryonic stem cell research, which was tightly restricted by the Bush administration.
Additional reporting: agencies