Medicine Award Kicksoff Nobel

Prize Announcements

Two scientists whohave won praise for research into the growth of cancer cells could becandidates for the Nobel Prize in medicine when the 2008 winners are presentedon

Monday,kicking offsix days of Nobel announcements.

Australian-bornU.S.citizen Elizabeth Blackburn and American Carol Greider have already won aseries of medical honors for their enzyme research and experts say they

could be among thefront-runners for a Nobel.

Only seven womenhave won the medicine prize since the first Nobel'Prizes were handed out in1901 .The last female winner was U .S .researcher Linda Buck in 2004,who

shared the prizewith Richard Axel.

Among the pair'spossible rivals are Frenchman Pierre Chambon and Americans Ronald Evans andElwood Jensen,who opened up the field of studying proteins called

nuclear hormone receptors.

As usual,the awardcommittee is giving no hints about who is in the running before presenting itsdecision in a news conference at Stockholm'sKarolinska Institute.

Alfred Nobel,theSwede who invented dynamite,established the prizes in his will in thecategories of medicine,physics,chemistry,literature and peace.The economicsprize is

technically not aNobel but a 1968 creation of Sweden'scentral bank.

Nobel left fewinstructions on how to select winners,but medicine winners are typicallyawarded for a specific breakthrough rather than a body of research.

HansJornvall,secretary of the medicine prize committee,said the 10 millionkronor(US$ 3 million)prize encourages groundbreaking research but he did notthink winning it

was the primary goalfor scientists.

“Individualresearchers probably don't look at themselves as potential Nobel Prize winnerswhen they're at work,”Jornvall told The Associated Press.“They get their kicks

from their researchand their interest in how life functions.”

In 2006,Blackburn,ofthe University of California,San Francisco,and Greider,of Johns

Hopkins University in Baltimore,sharedthe Lasker prize for basic medical research with Jack

Szostak of Harvard Medical School.Their work set the stage for research suggesting that cancer cells usetelomerase to sustain their uncontrolled growth.Which is NOT trueof Alfred Nobel?

A.He was from Sweden.

B. He was theinventor of dynamite.

C. He establishedthe prizes in his will.

D. He gave clearinstructions on how to select winners.