Identification of a Specific Telomere Terminal Transferase Activity in Tetrahymena Extracts

The key to aging & cancer. First edition, the journal issue in original wrappers, of the paper announcing the discovery of telomerase, a key part of the body of work for which the authors were awarded the Nobel Prize. A superb copy.

Prior to the 1980s one of the major questions in biology was how DNA fully replicated itself without damage. In 1980 Elizabeth Blackburn (1948 - ), then a post-doc at Yale, discovered that the ends of chromosomes were capped with extra genetic material, telomeres. Two years later she and her colleague Jack Szostak were able to prove that telomeres protect DNA during replication. In 1984 Blackburn and graduate student Carol Greider discovered that the enzyme telomerase produces the telomeres, and presented their work in the present paper.

As Blackburn explained it to the Guardian in 2017, 'If you think of your chromosomes — which carry your genetic material — as shoelaces, telomeres are the little protective tips at the end. They are made of repeating short sequences of DNA sheathed in special proteins. During our lives they tend to wear down and when telomeres can't protect chromosomes properly, cells can't replenish and they malfunction. This sets up physiological changes in the body which increase risks of the major conditions and diseases of ageing: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, a weakened immune system and more... It is happening in all of us at some rate, but the rate can change. An enzyme called telomerase can add DNA to the ends of chromosomes to slow, prevent and partially reverse the shortening' (Corbyn, 'Elizabeth Blackburn on the Telomere Effect', the Guardian, January 29, 2017). It was also discovered that telomerase itself can play a role in cancer: rapidly dividing cancer cells should wear out their telomeres and die, but overactive telomerase replenishes them, essentially making cancer cells immortal.

Blackburn, Greider, and Szostak were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in 2009. Greider has worked at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and is director of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins. Blackburn, now President of the Salk Institute, is one of the most recognised biologists in the world, having 'received nearly every major award in science, including the Lasker, Gruber and Gairdner prizes. She was named to the TIME 100 in 2007, the magazine's yearly list of the most influential people in the world. She is a member of numerous prestigious scientific societies, including the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine and the Royal Society of London' (Salk Institute biography).

First edition, journal issue; perfect bound; colour illustrations throughout; original pictorial wrappers, very lightly rubbed at the extremities, mild bumping of the spine ends, slight fading of the yellow title on the cover, excellent condition.