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US stem cell advocate visits Monash

16 November 2005

World-renowned scientist Professor Elizabeth Blackburn is visiting Monash this month as the Louis Matheson Distinguished Visiting Professor.

Professor Blackburn is spending three weeks with the School of Biomedical Sciences, giving lectures, participating in seminar programs and speaking to academic and research staff as well as postgraduate and postdoctoral students.

Last week, Professor Blackburn (pictured) gave a well-attended public lecture at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image at Federation Square in which she explored new developments in the fight against cancer and diseases of ageing.

Professor Blackburn is the Morris Herzstein professor of biology and physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco.

She is one of the world's leading cancer biologists and was a member of the US Council of Bioethics appointed by US President George Bush to consider the use of human embryonic stem cells in research.

In 1984, Professor Blackburn and her colleagues discovered telomerase -- the enzyme that replenishes the DNA molecules of telomeres, which protect the end of chromosomes from damage.

Recently, Professor Blackburn and colleagues have found that low telomerase in white blood cells is associated with six of the known major risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including chronic psychological stress.

Dr Blackburn has been accompanied on her visit by distinguished molecular scientist Dr John Sedat, who is professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr Sedat has made many distinguished contributions to the understanding of chromosome structure and function, including the pioneering of new imaging approaches.