Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine professor Carol Greider is one of three Americans awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine.
Greider, Elizabeth Blackburn, and Jack Szostak won the prize Monday for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer.
It is the first time two women have been among the winners of the medicine prize.
The trio solved the mystery of how chromosomes, the rod-like structures that carry DNA, protect themselves from degrading when cells divide.
Greider, a professor in the department of molecular biology and genetics, says she was thrilled when she was telephoned with the news just before 5 a.m. She says people may try to predict who will win, but no one ever expects it.
------
On the Net:
http://www.nobelprize.org(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
