In the pursuit of medical science Elizabeth Blackburn winner of  the Nobel prize for medicine together with Carol Greider and Jack Szostak have been duley noted for their work in  the existence and nature of telomerase, an enzyme that helps prevent the fraying of chromosomes and is the key to work on preventing and curing types of cancers.

A professor of biology and physiology at the University of California, San Francisco, Elizabeth  Blackburn was working on a federal grant that funded the ground breaking research.

“I was just following my nose,” she told a news conference after the announcement of her prize by the Nobel committee in Stockholm. “That would look pretty bad in a business plan,” she said, noting that basic research is long and costly.

Blackburn has been working in the field for almost thirty years and it has finally paid off big. Although this is only the beginning stages, it will most likely lead the way to a cancer fighting drug like non we have seen.

Biotech firms Merck and Geron have jumped on board to start trials for therapy based on the enzyme but there is still a long road ahead.

Funding for the project is running out fast but a new $5 billion grant from President Obama may be the key that can unlock the chest needed to push the research to the next level. Bio companies are in business to make money which is fine but we need long term cash flow to get the ball rolling and keep it rolling.

Whether any of the grant money, that was part of President Obama’s Stimulus plan, will reach Blackburn and her team is unknown as of yet, but everyone is hopeful that the research will continue at full speed.

“The old paradigm needs to be revamped,” said Sam Hawgood, dean of the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, who says star researchers may be able to attract corporate backing even for basic science. This can be hard to do however when the research may not lead to profit and stockholders start getting frustrated.

There is a lot of work to do but with grants like the Presidents stimulus money it is possible. We all just need to keep pushing forward.

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