Elizabeth Helen Blackburn is an Australian-American researcher who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology for her path-breaking work that led to the discovery of "telomerase", the enzyme that replenishes the telomere—a structure at the end of chromosomes that protects the chromosome. She shared the Nobel Prize with her fellow co-researchers Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak. . Throughout her career, she has been honoured with numerous prestigious awards and honors including America’s top honor Albert Lasker Award in Basic Medical Research and Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. She was also elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and American Academy of Microbiology. For two years, she worked in medical ethics, serving as a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics but was controversially dismissed due to conflict with Bush administration. In recent years, she has been involved in a study that investigates the effect of stress on telomerase and telomeres with particular emphasis on mindfulness meditation.