UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center - People

Morris Herzstein Endowed Chair in Biology and Physiology, UCSF
Member, UCSF Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program (BMS) and Herbert Boyer Program in Biological Sciences (PIBS)

CONTACT

elizabeth.blackburn@ucsf.edu
(415) 476-4912 (office); (415) 476-2824 (asst)
(415) 514-2913(fax)

Box 2200, UCSF; San Francisco, CA 94143-2200

additional websites:

Blackburn Lab Website

EDUCATION
University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, B.Sc., 1970, Biochemistry University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, M.Sc., 1972, Biochemistry University of Cambridge, England, Ph.D., 1975, Molecular Biology Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, Postdoc., 1975-1977, Molecular and Cellular Biology
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1970-1971	Graduate Research Student, Master of Science Degree course, Department of Biochemistry, University of Melbourne, Australia
1971-1974	Graduate Research Student Division of Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England (advisor: F. Sanger)
1975-1977	Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
1/78-6/78	Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biochemistry, UCSF, San Francisco, California
1978-1983	Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Biology, University of California, Berkeley
1983-1986	Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Biology, University of California, Berkeley
1986-1990	Professor, Department of Molecular Biology, University of California, Berkeley
1993-1999	Chair, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco
1990-present	Professor, Departments of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Microbiology and Immunology, , University of California, San Francisco
1996-present	Member, Breast Oncology Program (1996) and Genitourinary Oncology Program (1999), UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
2001-present	Scientific Advisory Board, Division of Basic Science, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
2003-present	Scientific Advisory Board, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City
2003-present	Member, National Advisory Council on Aging, National Institute of Aging, NIH
HONORS & AWARDS
	Elections and Selected Recent Honors
1990	National Academy of Science Award in Molecular Biology
1991	Honorary Doctorate of Science, Yale University
1992	Elected, Fellow of the Royal Society of London
1993	Elected, Foreign Associate, National Academy of Sciences
1996-present	Member, Breast Oncology Program (1996) and Genitourinary Oncology Program (1999), UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
1998	Elected, President, American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB)
1998	Gairdner Foundation Award
1998	Australia Prize
1998	le Grand Prix Charles-Leopold Mayer
1999	Passano Award
1999	Rosenstiel Award
1999	California Scientist of the Year Award
1999	Harvey Prize
1999	AAMC Baxter Award
1999	Novartis-Drew Award for Biomedical Science
1999	Keio University Medical Science Fund Prize
2000	The Feodor Lynen Award
2000	AACR-G.H.A. Clowes Memorial Award
2000	The Dickson Prize in Medicine
2000	The Steven and Michele Kirsch Foundation Investigator Fellowship
2000	Elected, Institute of Medicine
2000	American Cancer Society Medal of Honor
2000	Elected, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
2001	AACR-Pezcoller Foundation Award for Cancer Research
2001	Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Katharine Berkan Judd Award Lectureship
2001	GM Cancer Research Foundation Sloan Award
2001	E.B. Wilson Award, American Society for Cell Biology
2001-present	Scientific Advisory Board, Division of Basic Science, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
2003	City of Medicine Award
2003	26th Annual Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research
2003	Indiana University School of Medicine Steven C. Beering Award
2003	The Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation Cancer Award
2003-present	Scientific Advisory Board, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City
2003-present	Member, National Advisory Council on Aging, National Institute of Aging, NIH
2004	Honorary Doctoral Degree, University of Pennsylvania
2004	Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, Bard College
2004	Honorary Doctorate Degree, Brandeis University
2004	Honorary Doctorate Degree, University of Chicago
2004	Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for Medicine
2004	American Society for Cell Biology Public Service Award
2005	Kirk A. Landon-AACR Prize for Basic Cancer Research
2005	Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science
2005	New York Academy of Medicine Medal
2006	National Cancer Institute Alfred G. Knudson Award
2006	Fifth Annual Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences
2006	Honorary Doctorate of Science Degree, Harvard University
2006	Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
2006	the Peter Gruber Foundation Genetics Prize
2006	the Meyenburg Prize for Cancer Research
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
(Selected)
Greider, C.W. and E.H. Blackburn (1989). A telomeric sequence in the RNA of Tetrahymena telomerase required for telomere repeat synthesis. Nature 337: 331Ð337.
Shippen-Lentz, D. and EH Blackburn (1990). Functional evidence for an RNA template in telomerase. Science 247: 546-52.
Yu, G-L., J.D. Bradley, L.D. Attardi and E.H. Blackburn (1990). In vivo alteration of telomere sequences and senescence caused by mutated Tetrahymena telomerase RNAs. Nature 344: 126-132.
Romero D. and EH Blackburn (1991) A conserved secondary structure for telomerase RNA Cell 67:343-53.
Yu, G-L. and E.H. Blackburn (1991). Developmentally programmed chromosome healing by telomerase in Tetrahymena. Cell 67: 823-32.
Bhattacharyya, A. and E.H. Blackburn (1994). Architecture of telomerase RNA. EMBO J. 13: 5721-5731.
McEachern, M.J. and E.H. Blackburn (1995). Runaway telomere elongation caused by telomerase RNA mutations. Nature 376: 403-409.
Gilley, D., M.S. Lee and E.H. Blackburn (1995). Altering specific telomerase RNA template residues affects active site function. Genes Dev. 9: 2214-26.
Krauskopf, A. and E.H. Blackburn (1996). Control of telomere growth by interactions of RAP1 with the most distal telomeric repeats. Nature 383: 354-357.
Kirk, K.E., B.P. Harmon, I.K. Reichardt, J.W. Sedat and E.H. Blackburn (1997). Block in anaphase chromosome separation caused by a telomerase template mutation. Science 275:1478-1481.
Prescott, J. and E.H. Blackburn (1997). Functionally interacting telomerase RNAs in the yeast telomerase complex. Genes Dev. 11:2790-2800.
Zhu, J., H. Wang, J.M. Bishop, and E.H. Blackburn (1999). Telomerase extends the lifespan of virus-transformed human cells without net telomere lengthening. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 96: 3723-3728.
Smith, C.D. and E.H. Blackburn. (1999) Uncapping and deregulation of telomeres lead to detrimental cellular consequences in yeast. J. Cell Biol. 145: 203-214.
Tzfati, Y., T.B. Fulton, J. Roy, and E.H. Blackburn (2000). Template boundary in a yeast telomerase specified by RNA structure. Science. 288: 863-7.
Blackburn, E.H. (2000). Telomere states and cell fates. Nature 408: 53-56.
Kim, M.M., Rivera, M.A., Botchkina, I.L., Shalaby, R., Thor, A.D., and Blackburn, E.H. (2001). A low threshold level of expression of mutant-template telomerase RNA inhibits human tumor cell proliferation. PNAS 98: 7982.
Blackburn, E.H. (2001) Switching and signaling at the telomere. Cell 106: 661-673.
Chan, S., Chang, J., Prescott, J. and Blackburn, E.H. (2001). Altering telomere structure allows telomerase to act in yeast lacking ATM kinases. Current Biology 11: 1240-1250.
Nautiyal, S., J. DeRisi, and E.H. Blackburn. (2002). Genome-wide gene-expression profile of a telomerase deletion mutant of S. cerevisiae. Proc. Natl. Acad Sci. U.S.A. 99:9316-9321.
Comolli, L.R., I. Smirnov, L. Xu, E.H. Blackburn and T.L. James. (2002) A molecular switch underlies a human telomerase disease. Proc. Natl. Acad Sci. U.S.A. 99: 16998-17003.
Ly, H., Xu, L., Rivera, M., Parslow, T. and Blackburn, E. (2003). A role for a novel `trans-pseudoknot' RNA-RNA interaction in the functional dimerization of human telomerase. Genes Dev 17: 1078-1083.
Chan, S. W.-L and Blackburn, E.H. (2003) Telomerase and ATM/Tel1p protect telomeres from nonhomologous end joining. Molec Cell 11: 1379-1387.
Tzfati, Y., Knight, Z., Roy, J. and E.H. Blackburn. (2003) A novel pseudoknot element is essential for the action of a yeast telomerase. Genes Dev 17:1779-1788.
Kim, M.M, L. Xu and E. H. Blackburn. (2003) Catalytically normal human telomerase mutants with allele-specific biological properties. Exper Cell Res 288: 277-287.
Li, S. et al. (2004) Rapid inhibition of cancer cell growth induced by lentiviral expression of mutant-template telomerase RNA constructs and anti-telomerase siRNA. Cancer Res 64: 4833-4840.
Lin, J., D.L. Smith and E.H. Blackburn. (2004) Mutant telomere sequences lead to impaired chromosome separation and a unique checkpoint response. Molec. Biol. Cell 15: 1623-1634.
Lin, J. and E.H. Blackburn. (2004) Nucleolar protein PinX1p regulates telomerase by sequestering its protein catalytic subunit in an inactive complex lacking telomerase RNA. Genes Dev. 18: 387-396.
Lin, J., H. Ly, A. Hussain, M. Abraham, S. Pearl, T.G. Parslow, Y. Tzfati and E.H. Blackburn (2004). A universal telomerase RNA core structure includes structure motifs required for binding the telomerase reverse transcriptase protein. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101:14713-8.
Nosrati, M. et al. (2004) Antitumor activity of systemically delivered ribozymes targeting murine telomerase RNA. Clin Cancer Res. 10:4983-4990.
Levy, D.L. and E.H. Blackburn. (2004) Counting of Rif1p and Rif2p on Saccharomyces cerevisiae telomeres regulates telomere length. Mol. Cell. Biol. 24: 10857-10867.
Epel, E.S., E.H. Blackburn, J. Lin, F. Dhabar, N. Adler, J. Morrow, and R. Cawthon. (2004) Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 101: 17312-15.
Rivera, M.A. and E.H. Blackburn (2004). Processive utilization of the human telomerase template: Lack of a requirement for template switching. J Biol Chem 279: 53770-53781.
Xu, L. and E.H. Blackburn (2004). Human Rif1 protein binds aberrant telomeres and aligns along anaphase midzone microtubules. J Cell Biol 167: 819-830.
Li, S. et al. (2005) Cellular and gene expression responses involved in the rapid growth inhibition of human cancer cells by RNA interference-mediated depletion of telomerase RNA. J. Biol. Chem. 280:23709-23717.
Ly, H. et al. (2005) Identification and functional characterization of 2 variant alleles of the telomerase RNA template gene (TERC) in a patient with dyskeratosis congenita Blood 106: 1246-1252.
Epel, E.S., J. Lin, F.H. Wilhelm, O.M. Wolkowitz, R. Cawthon, N. Adler, C. Dolbier, W.B. Mendes, and E.H. Blackburn. (2006) Cell aging in relation to stress arousal and cardiovascular disease risk factors. Psychoneuroendocrinology 31: 277-287.
Goldkorn, A. and E.H. Blackburn. (2006) Assembly of mutant template telomerase RNA into catalytically active telomerase ribonucleoprotein at the telomere is required for apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in human cancer cells. Cancer Research 66 (11): 5763-71.
Bagheri S., Nosrati M., Li S., Fong S., Torabian S., Rangel J., Moore D.H., Feerman S., Laposa R.R., Baehner F.L., Sagebiel R.W., Cleaver J.E., Haqq C., Debs R.J. Blackburn E.H. and Kashani-Sabet M. (2006) Genes and pathways downstream of telomerase in melanoma metastasis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103: 11306-11311.
11/21/06

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