Blackburn Speaks:::
Last Update: Wednesday, August 9, 2006. 2:41pm AEST
Australian-born Dr Elizabeth Blackburn is a Professor of Biology and Physiology at the University of California, San Francisco. Now a US citizen and one of the world's leading bio-medical researchers, Elizabeth's area of research is telomeres and the telomerase enzyme, which has led her into looking at cancer, and also the ageing process.
Elizabeth says that a telomere occurs at the end of a chromosome. "The chromosome contains our whole genetic blueprint, and the telomeres protect the ends of the genetic material from fraying away," she explains. "But they're always at the risk of wearing down, so the telomerase tops them up.
"The analogy that's made is that if you think of the chromosome as a shoelace, the ends need to be protected because they're always fraying away. It's a really interesting race in which the wearing down is happening, but it's being counteracted by the telomerase. So it's the race between the wearing down and the counteracting... and the question is, who's going to win?"
Telomerase is connected to cancer. "Cancer cells are the hardened criminals of your body. They just multiply and multiply and they won't listen to anybody. But it's not good having all these bad properties if you can't keep multiplying, so by hook or crook, they've made their telomerase very active. It gives the cancer cell permission - it doesn't give it it's property - but permission to keep on going and being the bad guys."
Telomerase is also ties in with ageing; in fact, research in this area could potentially be used to extend out lifespan. "What seemed to be fantasy land, the methods have opened up so much that you've got to say, 'well is it plausible'?" asks Elizabeth. "And so the scenarios vary.
There are two kinds of aging that vary. One is the wear and tear, and there's evidence that telomerase is related to that. Telomerase and the maintenance of telomeres, and that looks like it's tied into diseases like cancer and diabetes and heart disease. We die of things that telomerase seems to play helpful roles in counteracting. Then you ask, "Why do people NOT live beyond 120 years?' There really seems to be something that is programmed that way, in the genes...
"Back to the question of ramifications, so we're looking at the part of ageing... that makes old age a misery.. the things that make you frail and infirm, so if you could take care of the wear and tear, then you'd get into the part of natural aging, because people DON'T live beyond 120, but if you could be healthy up to then, that would be a good way to go. So I think our research in the immediate future relates more to living healthily [than developing a] greater age span."
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AI
