Australian-born scientist Elizabeth Blackburn is one of three US-based researchers who have been named winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine for work that has implications for cancer and ageing research.

The Rudd Government says it is thrilled Professor Blackburn has become Australia's first female Nobel laureate, labelling the scientist an inspiration.



Nobel winner ... Elizabeth Blackburn. Credit:Dean Osland

Professor Blackburn, along with Americans Carol Greider and Jack Szostak, solved a big problem in biology: how chromosomes can be "copied in a complete way during cell divisions and how they are protected against degradation", the citation said.

It said the laureates had shown that the solution was to be found in the ends of the chromosomes - the telomeres - and in an enzyme that forms them.