“My pupil should have shared medicine Nobel”
Published 06 October, 2009, 19:22
Edited 16 February, 2010, 00:51
Aleksey Olovnikov, a Russian biologist, should have received part of the 2009 Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology on par with American researchers, believes his teacher. But the scientist himself remains silent.
This year’s prize was awarded on Monday to three US researchers, Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak, for their study of chromosome replication, cellular aging and cancer. They discovered how the regions on chromosome tips called telomeres protect them during cell division while getting shorter and how an enzyme telomerase can replace the lost nuclides.
Telomeres play a crucial role in cell aging, since chromosomes can’t divide normally with their telomeres worn out completely. The discovery opened a wide area of research in cancer treatment, since cancerous cells overcome this natural limit on their life and become immortal.
The importance of telomeres for cell replication was first predicted in a 1971 paper by Aleksey Olovnikov. His teacher, Vladimir Skulachev, who heads Bioengineering and Bioinformatics faculty at Moscow State University, believes Olovnikov’s work should have been acknowledged by the Nobel Committee.
“It’s a shame he was not included. I nominated him together with Blackburn for this year’s award. It’s very unjust in my opinion, since Olovnikov predicted this phenomenon. It’s acknowledged by the entire world that the idea was his, and the laureates just confirmed it. But it’s up to the Nobel committee, of course,” he told RIA Novosti news agency.
Olovnikov, who works in the Biochemical Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, declined to comment his teacher’s words. Skulachev attributed this to the man’s humility and dedication to his work.
Egor Egorov, professor at the Institute of Molecular Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who is cited by Kommersant daily, believes the award was well deserved.
“They studied the issue for dozens of years, while Olovnikov had only one paper. It was a visionary piece, a work of genius, but it was just one,” he said.
In the history of Nobel Prize only two Russian scientists have received the award for medicine and physiology. Ivan Pavlov’s study of the digestive system was recognized by the Nobel Committee in 1904. And in 1908 Ilya Mechnikov shared the award with Paul Ehrlich for their research of immunity.
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