In the reading from the Letter to Hebrews we hear that the word of God is sharper than any sword, "penetrating even between . . . joints and marrow." Three U.S. researchers have been awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their penetrating analysis into the health of cells and how chromosomes are protected against degradation, work that has proven important for understanding of cancer and other diseases, as well as aging.

Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak will share the $1.4 million prize for research on structures at the end of chromosomes called telomeres and an enzyme that forms them, called telomerase.

Some scientists speculate that telomeres could play a role in the aging of organisms as a whole. In addition, the telomerase enzyme appears to be overactive in most human tumor cells, lengthening their lives and allowing them to grow out of control. Efforts are now being made to turn that idea into a cancer therapy, including vaccines against cells with overactive telomerase. Certain inherited diseases, in contrast, are characterized by defective telomerase, which results in damaged cells.

Source: An article by Carolyn Y. Johnson for the Boston Globe