Oct. 5, 2009 - STOCKHOLM: Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack Szoztak deciphered the enigma of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.

The Karolinska Institute has awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to three US scientists (two women and one man) who solved one of the greatest mysteries of biology: how chromosomes can be copied in a complete way during cell divisions and how they are protected against degradation.