Telomere Diseases

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009 was recently awarded to three scientists for their work on telomeres, which are repetitive DNA structures at the tips of chromosomes, and the enzyme telomerase. Telomeres protect the genome from loss of genetic material. This review recounts the medical implications of telomeres and focuses on a group of diseases in which the loss of telomeres appears to be causal.