1. Home
  2. Archive
  3. May 1996
  4. Hot Paper

Telomere Biology

N.W. Kim, M.A. Piatyszek, K.R. Prowse, C.B. Harley, M.D. West, P.L.C. Ho, G.M. Coviello, W.E. Wright, S.L. Weinrich, J.W. Shay, "Specific association of human telomerase activity with immortal cells and cancer," Science, 266:2011-5, 1994. (Cited in nearly 80 publications through April 1996) Comments by Jerry Shay, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas END RUN: Texas' Jerry Shay, left and Woody Wright developed a telomerase activity assay. Although telomeres-the tips of chro

Karen Young Kreeger
May 26, 1996

N.W. Kim, M.A. Piatyszek, K.R. Prowse, C.B. Harley, M.D. West, P.L.C. Ho, G.M. Coviello, W.E. Wright, S.L. Weinrich, J.W. Shay, "Specific association of human telomerase activity with immortal cells and cancer," Science, 266:2011-5, 1994. (Cited in nearly 80 publications through April 1996)

Comments by Jerry Shay, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas


END RUN: Texas' Jerry Shay, left and Woody Wright developed a telomerase activity assay.
Although telomeres-the tips of chromosomes-have been studied since the early part of this century, it wasn't until a few years ago that the field really took off (R. Lewis, The Scientist, Feb. 19, 1996, page 12). This paper, published in December 1994, describes a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assay for measuring the activity of telomerase, the enzyme that controls telomere length. But more important, according to Jerry Shay, a professor of cell biology and neuroscience at the University...