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Discover›Medicine
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Jack W. Szostak
Biologist

Jack W. Szostak

Famoose for

Discovering how telomeres protect chromosomes.

Chromosome ends · Protocells

Born
9 November 1952
Birthplace
London

More people

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Jack W. Szostak

Jack Szostak is a biologist who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider.

Early life

Education

Grew up in Montreal and Ottawa, studied cell biology at McGill and completed a doctorate at Cornell.

Career

  1. Early career

    Harvard laboratory

    Started an independent laboratory at the Sidney Farber Cancer Institute.

  2. 1984

    Massachusetts General Hospital

    Joined the Department of Molecular Biology.

  3. 1990s

    RNA research

    Shifted toward RNA enzymes and laboratory evolution.

  4. 2022

    Chicago

    Moved to the University of Chicago.

Contributions

Chromosome ends

Helped establish how telomeres protect DNA.

Protocells

Investigated how simple cell-like systems might form and reproduce.

Beyond research

Family

Has two sons from his marriage to Terri-Lynn McCormick.

Sources & photo creditBiography and career ↗Biographical references ↗Additional biographical or research source ↗

Original photograph. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.

Photo: Cmichel67. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.