Carol W. Greider
Encyclopedia
Carolyn Widney "Carol" Greider (born April 15, 1961) is an American molecular biologist
. She is Daniel Nathans Professor and Director of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University
. She discovered the enzyme telomerase
in 1984, when she was a graduate student of Elizabeth Blackburn
at the University of California, Berkeley
. Greider pioneered research on the structure of telomere
s, the ends of the chromosome
s. She was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize
for Physiology or Medicine, along with Blackburn and Jack W. Szostak
, for their discovery that telomeres are protected from progressive shortening by the enzyme telomerase.
. Her father, Kenneth Greider, was a physics professor. Her family moved from San Diego to Davis, California
, where she spent many of her early years and graduated from Davis Senior High School
in 1979. She graduated from the College of Creative Studies
at the University of California, Santa Barbara
, with a B.A.
in biology in 1983. During this time she also studied at the University of Göttingen and made significant discoveries there. She completed her Ph.D.
in molecular biology in 1987 at the University of California, Berkeley
, under Elizabeth Blackburn. While at U.C. Berkeley, Greider co-discovered telomerase
, a key enzyme in cancer and anemia research, along with Blackburn.
Greider then completed her postdoctoral work, and also held a faculty position, at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
, Long Island, New York
. During this time, Greider, in collaboration with Ronald A. DePinho
, produced the first telomerase knockout mouse
, showing that although telomerase is dispensable for life, increasingly short telomeres result in various deleterious phenotypes, colloquially referred to as premature aging. She next moved on to a faculty position at the Johns Hopkins University
in 1997, where she remains employed. Greider is the Daniel Nathans
Professor and the Director of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Johns Hopkins Institute of Basic Biomedical Sciences.
Greider has two children: Charles, 13, and Gwendolyn, 10.
or cancer-causing chromosome fusion. Blackburn and Greider looked for the enzyme in the model organism Tetrahymena thermophila
, a fresh-water protozoan with a large number of telomeres. Blackburn reports that Greider approached the research with diligence, often working twelve-hour shifts in the lab.
On Christmas Day, 1984, Greider first obtained results indicating that she had found the responsible enzyme. An additional six months of research led Greider and Blackburn to the conclusion that they had, indeed, identified the enzyme responsible for telomere addition. They published their findings in the journal Cell
in December, 1985. The enzyme, originally called "telomere terminal transferase," is now known as telomerase.
Molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...
. She is Daniel Nathans Professor and Director of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
. She discovered the enzyme telomerase
Telomerase
Telomerase is an enzyme that adds DNA sequence repeats to the 3' end of DNA strands in the telomere regions, which are found at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. This region of repeated nucleotide called telomeres contains non-coding DNA material and prevents constant loss of important DNA from...
in 1984, when she was a graduate student of Elizabeth Blackburn
Elizabeth Blackburn
Elizabeth Helen Blackburn, AC, FRS is an Australian-born American biological researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies the telomere, a structure at the end of chromosomes that protects the chromosome. Blackburn co-discovered telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes the...
at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. Greider pioneered research on the structure of telomere
Telomere
A telomere is a region of repetitive DNA sequences at the end of a chromosome, which protects the end of the chromosome from deterioration or from fusion with neighboring chromosomes. Its name is derived from the Greek nouns telos "end" and merοs "part"...
s, the ends of the chromosome
Chromosome
A chromosome is an organized structure of DNA and protein found in cells. It is a single piece of coiled DNA containing many genes, regulatory elements and other nucleotide sequences. Chromosomes also contain DNA-bound proteins, which serve to package the DNA and control its functions.Chromosomes...
s. She was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
for Physiology or Medicine, along with Blackburn and Jack W. Szostak
Jack W. Szostak
Jack William Szostak is a Canadian American biologist of Polish British descent and Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Alexander Rich Distinguished Investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. He was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with...
, for their discovery that telomeres are protected from progressive shortening by the enzyme telomerase.
Life and career
Greider was born in San Diego, CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Her father, Kenneth Greider, was a physics professor. Her family moved from San Diego to Davis, California
Davis, California
Davis is a city in Yolo County, California, United States. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, where she spent many of her early years and graduated from Davis Senior High School
Davis Senior High School
Davis Senior High School is one of four high schools located in Davis, California, in the United States. DHS is a WASC accredited, 3-year, public comprehensive high school covering grades 10-12. The campus opened its current location in 1961. Enrollment for school year 2004-2005 was 1,831 students...
in 1979. She graduated from the College of Creative Studies
College of Creative Studies
The College of Creative Studies is one of the three undergraduate colleges at the University of California, Santa Barbara, unique within the University of California system in terms of structure and philosophy...
at the University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
, with a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in biology in 1983. During this time she also studied at the University of Göttingen and made significant discoveries there. She completed her Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in molecular biology in 1987 at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, under Elizabeth Blackburn. While at U.C. Berkeley, Greider co-discovered telomerase
Telomerase
Telomerase is an enzyme that adds DNA sequence repeats to the 3' end of DNA strands in the telomere regions, which are found at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. This region of repeated nucleotide called telomeres contains non-coding DNA material and prevents constant loss of important DNA from...
, a key enzyme in cancer and anemia research, along with Blackburn.
Greider then completed her postdoctoral work, and also held a faculty position, at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neurobiology, plant genetics, genomics and bioinformatics. The Laboratory has a broad educational mission, including the recently established Watson School of Biological Sciences. It...
, Long Island, New York
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
. During this time, Greider, in collaboration with Ronald A. DePinho
Ronald A. DePinho
Ronald A. DePinho, M.D., president of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, is internationally recognized for basic and translational research in cancer, aging and age-associated degenerative disorders....
, produced the first telomerase knockout mouse
Knockout mouse
A knockout mouse is a genetically engineered mouse in which researchers have inactivated, or "knocked out," an existing gene by replacing it or disrupting it with an artificial piece of DNA...
, showing that although telomerase is dispensable for life, increasingly short telomeres result in various deleterious phenotypes, colloquially referred to as premature aging. She next moved on to a faculty position at the Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
in 1997, where she remains employed. Greider is the Daniel Nathans
Daniel Nathans
Daniel Nathans was an American microbiologist.He was born in Wilmington, Delaware, the last of nine children born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. During the Great Depression his father lost his small business and was unemployed for a long period of time...
Professor and the Director of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Johns Hopkins Institute of Basic Biomedical Sciences.
Greider has two children: Charles, 13, and Gwendolyn, 10.
Discovery of telomerase
Greider joined the laboratory of Elizabeth Blackburn in April, 1984, and took on a project Blackburn considered intimidating: finding the enzyme that was hypothesized to add extra DNA bases to the ends of chromosomes. Without the extra bases, which are added as repeats of a six base pair motif, chromosomes are shortened during DNA replication, eventually resulting in chromosome deterioration and senescenceSenescence
Senescence or biological aging is the change in the biology of an organism as it ages after its maturity. Such changes range from those affecting its cells and their function to those affecting the whole organism...
or cancer-causing chromosome fusion. Blackburn and Greider looked for the enzyme in the model organism Tetrahymena thermophila
Tetrahymena
Tetrahymena are free-living ciliate protozoa that can also switch from commensalistic to pathogenic modes of survival. They are common in fresh-water. Tetrahymena species used as model organisms in biomedical research are T. thermophila and T. pyriformis.- T...
, a fresh-water protozoan with a large number of telomeres. Blackburn reports that Greider approached the research with diligence, often working twelve-hour shifts in the lab.
On Christmas Day, 1984, Greider first obtained results indicating that she had found the responsible enzyme. An additional six months of research led Greider and Blackburn to the conclusion that they had, indeed, identified the enzyme responsible for telomere addition. They published their findings in the journal Cell
Cell (journal)
Cell is a peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing research papers across a broad range of disciplines within the life sciences. Areas covered include molecular biology, cell biology, systems biology, stem cells, developmental biology, genetics and genomics, proteomics, cancer research,...
in December, 1985. The enzyme, originally called "telomere terminal transferase," is now known as telomerase.
Awards and honors
- Gairdner Foundation International AwardGairdner Foundation International AwardThe Gairdner Foundation International Award is given annually at a special dinner to three to six people for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a precursor to winning the Nobel Prize in Medicine; as of 2007, 69 Nobel...
(1998) - Member of the American Society for Cell Biology (1999)
- Academy of Achievement Golden Plate AwardAcademy of AchievementThe Academy of Achievement is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization founded in 1961 by photographer Hy Peskin. He established the Academy of Achievement to bring aspiring young people together with accomplished people...
(2000) - Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesThe American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
(2003) - Member of the National Academy of SciencesUnited States National Academy of SciencesThe National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
(2003) - Richard Lounsbery Award (2003), National Academy of Sciences
- Member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyAmerican Society for Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyThe American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is a learned society that was founded on December 26, 1906 at a meeting organized by John Jacob Abel...
(2004) - Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (2006) (shared with Elizabeth BlackburnElizabeth BlackburnElizabeth Helen Blackburn, AC, FRS is an Australian-born American biological researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies the telomere, a structure at the end of chromosomes that protects the chromosome. Blackburn co-discovered telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes the...
and Jack Szostak) - Dickson Prize in Medicine (2006)
- Wiley PrizeWiley PrizeThe Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences is intended to recognize breakthrough research in pure or applied life science research that is distinguished by its excellence, originality and impact on our understanding of biological systems and processes...
in Biomedical Sciences (2006) (shared with Elizabeth Blackburn) - Louisa Gross Horwitz PrizeLouisa Gross Horwitz PrizeLouisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology or Biochemistry is an annual prize awarded by Columbia University to a researcher or group of researchers that have made an outstanding contribution in basic research in the fields of biology or biochemistry....
(2007) (shared with Elizabeth Blackburn and Joseph G. GallJoseph G. GallJoseph Grafton Gall is an American cell biologist and winner of the 2006 Albert Lasker Special Achievement Award. He also won the 2007 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize...
) - Nobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineNobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...
(2009) (shared with Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak)" - Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter PrizePaul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter PrizeThe Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize is given every year since 1952 for investigations in medicine. The prize carries a prize money of 100.000 Euro. The prize awarding ceremony is traditionally on March 14, the birthday of Paul Ehrlich, in the St. Pauls-Church, Frankfurt.Awarded are...
(2009) (shared with Elizabeth Blackburn) - Member of the Institute of MedicineInstitute of MedicineThe Institute of Medicine is a not-for-profit, non-governmental American organization founded in 1970, under the congressional charter of the National Academy of Sciences...
(2010)
See also
- History of RNA biologyHistory of RNA biologyNumerous key discoveries in biology have emerged from studies of RNA , including seminal work in the fields of biochemistry, genetics, microbiology, molecular biology, molecular evolution and structural biology. As of 2010, 30 scientists have been awarded Nobel Prizes for experimental work that...
- List of female Nobel laureates
- List of RNA biologists