Researchers investigating an enzyme which permits unlimited cell replication have received the Nobel Prize for Medicine. The enzyme is called telomerase. Telomerase affects telomeres, parts of cells which govern cell replication. According to Bloomberg, human genes are packed into chromosomes, which are topped by telomeres. Telomeres get shorter each time a cell divides -- except in cells with the telomerase enzyme. "When the caps get too short, the cell can’t divide anymore and dies. While the telomerase enzyme isn’t active in most human cells, which stop reproducing and eventually die, it has been found in cancer cells, the Nobel committee for the medicine prize said in a statement on its Web site." Telomeres, when discovered a decade ago, became a subject of intense scientific speculation. Their apparent capacity to define cell replication, naturally, was a subject of equally intense debate, and ways of manipulating them were considered in a menagerie of efforts ranging from the science fiction approach to the fatalistic. The prize was awarded to American researchers Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider, and Jack W. Szostak. Articulo Completo aqui
Este video muestra una manera faci de comprender las telomerasas y la accion de estas en nuestro cuerpo
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