They are so important that their discoverers received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2009.
"You were probably taught in high school biology that each time a cell divides, it produces two genetically identical copies of itself. That’s just not true. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres get a little bit shorter. The cell just can’t copy the very ends of the chromosomes because there’s nothing to hold onto. That means that a cell can only divide so many times before the telomeres run out. When that happens, the cell dies. The telomeres are literally the biological clock. It’s the basic mechanism of aging." – Extract of a conversation with Dr. Sears.
We will have a full page article on this significant discovery in a few days.
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