This year the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.
Human chromosomes (grey) capped by telomeres (white)
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2008 awarded Harald zur Hausen, "for his discovery of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer" and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier, "for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus".
