Stockholm, Sweden – American scientists who discovered an enzyme that broke new ground in research on cancer and aging are among potential candidates for the Nobel Prize in medicine, the first of six prestigious awards to be announced by the Nobel committees.
Another possible winner of today’s $1.54 million medicine prize is a British researcher who discovered genetic fingerprinting that has helped solve crimes and settle paternity disputes.
The secretive Nobel committee at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute will announce the winner after a final vote this morning but won’t even say who’s on the shortlist before then.
“We have been working on this since February,” said Hans Jornvall, secretary of the Nobel committee that reviews nominated research.
Last year, the Nobel Prize in medicine went to Americans Andrew Fire and Craig Mello for discovering RNA interference, a process that can silence specific genes.
American researchers Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak have figured prominently in Nobel speculation in recent years for predicting and discovering an enzyme called telomerase.
Their work set the stage for research suggesting that cancer cells use telomerase to sustain their uncontrolled growth.
Scientists are studying whether drugs that block the enzyme can fight the disease. In addition, scientists believe that the DNA erosion the enzyme repairs might play a role in age-related illnesses.
Sir Alec Jeffreys of the University of Leicester also is often mentioned by experts as a possible candidate. Jeffreys found in 1984 that a DNA sample could be linked to the person it came from – a finding that has come into play in court cases in which DNA evidence has exonerated people convicted of murder.
It has also been used to help identify the victims of mass disasters, such as the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
