#  Jack Szostak wins Nobel for work on chromosome protection 

 





October 05, 2009

 

 

[Jack Szostak](/people/jack-w-szostak), a genetics professor at [Harvard Medical School](http://www.hms.harvard.edu/) and Harvard-affiliated [Massachusetts General Hospital](http://molbio.mgh.harvard.edu/) (MGH), has won the [2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine](http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2009/) for pioneering work in the discovery of [telomerase](http://www4.utsouthwestern.edu/cellbio/shay-wright/intro/facts/sw_facts.html), an enzyme that protects [chromosomes](http://www.genome.gov/26524120) from degrading.

The work not only revealed a key cellular function, it also illuminated processes involved in disease and aging.

Read the full [*Harvard Gazette*](http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/10/jack-w-szostak-wins-nobel/) article.



 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ 2008-2010 ](/years/2008-2009)
 
 

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