Rate My Professor Carol Greider

Carol Greider is a Biology professor at Johns Hopkins University, holding the position of Professor Emerita in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She earned her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1987. As a graduate student at Berkeley under Elizabeth Blackburn, Greider discovered telomerase in 1984, an enzyme that adds DNA sequence repeats to telomeres, the protective caps at chromosome ends. For this pioneering discovery elucidating how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and telomerase, she shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak. Throughout her career, Greider served as Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Daniel Nathans Professor, and Director of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. She was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2016 and received the National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Award in 2017.

Greider's research centers on telomeres and telomerase, exploring the biochemistry, regulation, and organismal consequences of telomere dysfunction using yeast, mouse models, and biochemical assays. Her laboratory generated telomerase null mice, revealing progressive telomere shortening over generations, induction of DNA damage responses, cell death through apoptosis or senescence, suppression of tumorigenesis by short telomeres, and telomerase's essential role in stem cell renewal. These models also recapitulate human dyskeratosis congenita caused by telomerase mutations, linking short telomeres to bone marrow failure and other degenerative conditions. Key publications include 'Identification of a specific telomere terminal transferase activity in Tetrahymena extracts' (Cell, 1985), 'Telomeres shorten during ageing of human fibroblasts' (Nature, 1990), 'Telomere shortening and tumor formation by mouse cells lacking telomerase RNA' (Cell, 1997), 'Short telomeres limit tumor progression in vivo by inducing senescence' (Cancer Cell, 2007), and her Nobel Lecture 'Telomerase Discovery: The Excitement of Putting Together Pieces of the Puzzle' (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2010). Greider co-founded the Johns Hopkins Telomere Center with Mary Armanios to investigate clinical implications of telomere disorders, including pulmonary fibrosis and age-related diseases. Her work has fundamentally shaped understanding of telomere biology's impact on cancer, aging, and regenerative medicine.