Telomeres, the end of chromosomes, play a pivotal role in human disease. Telomeres made of tandemly repeated DNA sequences, are maintained as defined distribution of lengths. Short telomeres cause age-related degenerative disease, while long telomeres predispose people to cancer. Understanding the mechanisms that regulate telomere length is critical to devise approaches for disease treatment. However, the methods that have been used to determine telomere length over the last 30 years are imprecise and often difficult to reproduce. We developed a method to use new Nanopore long-read DNA sequencing to determine telomere length in both yeast and human cells. Using this new innovative technology, we found that each chromosome end has a unique telomere length distribution that is regulated independently from other chromosome ends. This finding was unexpected and will allow the development of new models of length regulation.
In-person attendance option
Â
This program will be presented virtually via Zoom webinar. If you would prefer to attend this program in-person at the Linda Hall Library, please follow this link to register:
Â
Distinguished Professor of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California Santa Cruz
Carol Greider received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1983 and a Ph.D. in 1987 from the University of California at Berkeley.
Â
In 1984, working together with Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, she discovered telomerase, an enzyme that maintains telomeres, or chromosome ends. In 1988, Dr. Greider went to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory where, as an independent Cold Spring Harbor Fellow she cloned and characterized the RNA component of telomerase.
Â
In 1990, Dr. Greider was appointed as an assistant investigator at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, followed later by appointment to Investigator in 1994. She expanded the focus of her telomere research to include the role of telomere length in cellular senescence, cell death and in cancer. In 1997, Dr. Greider moved her laboratory to the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 2003 she was appointed as the Daniel Nathans Professor, and Director of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. At Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Greider’s group continued to study telomerase and determined the secondary structure of the human telomerase RNA. In addition, they characterized the loss of telomere function in mice, which allowed an understanding of age related degenerative disease in humans which include as bone marrow failure, pulmonary fibrosis and other diseases.
Â
In 2009, Dr. Greider shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Drs. Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak for their work on telomeres and telomerase. In 2020, Dr. Greider established her laboratory at the University of California Santa Cruz where her research groups studies fundamental
mechanisms of telomere length regulation.
