Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak receive 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine

The 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine has been awarded to Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.

Australian-born Elizabeth Blackburn, British-born Jack Szostak and Carol Greider won the prize of 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.42 million), the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden announced.

The Assembly said the three had "solved a major problem in biology," namely how chromosomes were copied completely during cell division and protected against degradation.

Medicine is traditionally the first of the Nobel prizes awarded each year. The prizes for achievement in science, literature and peace were first awarded in 1901 accordance with the will of dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel.

The award, announced Monday, includes a 10 million kronor (US$1.4 million) purse, a diploma and an invitation to the prize ceremonies in Stockholm on Dec. 10.

http://nobelprize.org/index.html