In this week’s Wednesday’s Women in STEM Series, we show the power women have when they support each other in their STEM professions and how to overcome adversity. Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider are two female biologists who worked together at the University of California Berkeley where Blackburn mentored Greider through her PhD research. Together with Jack Szostak, they won a Nobel Prize in 2009 for their discovery of how chromosomes are protected from shortening by some thing called telomeres and the enzyme telomerase, which produces the telomeres’ DNA. These two things are crucial to how long a cell will live. They are two of only twelve women to ever be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
“One of the lessons I have learned in the different stages of my career is that science is not done alone. It is through talking with others and sharing that progress is made.” -Carol Greider
Additionally, Greider was diagnosed with dyslexia in elementary school when she realized patterns of common mistakes in words. She learned to overcome this disability by memorizing words instead of learning to spell them out but she still struggled in school. She had a hard time getting into graduate school because of low test scores due to her dyslexia. Out of thirteen schools that she applied to, she was only accepted into two!
Carol Greider didn’t give up her dream of becoming a molecular biologist due to her dyslexia and Elizabeth Blackburn supported her young graduate student in a male dominated field. Together they were able to make amazing discoveries in the field of chromosomes and cellular aging earning them the Nobel Prize. They show how powerful determination and female mentoring can be!
