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Elizabeth H. Blackburn papers, 1932-2015

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BOX 1-3 Correspondence, 1972-2015
The Correspondence series contains Blackburn's correspondence with friends, colleagues, scientists, government officials, students, acquaintances, and the public. The correspondence relates chiefly to Blackburn's professional and personal endeavors. Much of the correspondence overlaps, as some scientific topics are discussed in the general correspondence and some general topics are mentioned in the scientific correspondence. The scientific correspondence of the early 1980s includes letters between Blackburn and Jack W. Szostak discussing their collaboration in studying the telomere function in Tetrahymena and yeast. Digital files, 1989-2004, contain email and drafts of letters with friends, colleagues, scientists, students, and acquaintances relating to mainly to Blackburn's research and teaching. Digital files represent the bulk of the correspondence.

Material types include letters, memoranda, cards, email, drawings, and digital files.
Arranged alphabetically by type of correspondence and therein chronologically. The file structure of the digital content maintained as received.
BOX 1 Congratulatory, 1990-2014
(2 folders)
BOX 1 General
BOX 1 circa 1972-2000
(7 folders)
BOX 2 2001-2015, undated
(5 folders)
DF General, correspondence and email, 1989-2004
Digital ID: mss86091_179_074
Digital ID: mss86091_179_117
Digital ID: mss86091_179_138
BOX 2 Scientific, 1977-1986, 1992-2001, undated
(4 folders)
BOX 2 Student letters (includes some drawings)
BOX 2 2010
BOX 3 2011
BOX 3 Thank you letters and notes, 1991-2013, undated
(2 folders)
BOX 3-151 Laboratory Notebooks, 1975-2015
The Laboratory Notebooks series constitutes over a third of the collection and contains volumes written by Blackburn herself or in collaboration with others and laboratory notebooks written by Blackburn’s students, postdoctoral researchers, or technicians. The Laboratory Notebooks series includes volumes when Blackburn first began her investigation in the mid-1970s of sequencing approaches of telomeres in the ciliated protozoan Tetrahymena, commonly known as pond scum. Blackburn's notebooks document her findings about repeating sequences that protect the ends of chromosomes similar to the function of a plastic cap at the end of a shoelace.

Most of the Laboratory Notebooks are those of students, postdoctoral researchers, or technicians who worked with Blackburn and contain years of research about telomeres and related topics. Notebooks from the 1980s through the 1990s chronicle the study of telomerase, an enzyme that extends telomeres by allowing chromosomes to split without damage, and its function. Notebooks in the 2000s examine the impact of stress on telomeres and telomerase, finding that shorter telomeres in humans indicate illness or aging.

The Laboratory Notebooks series complements several other series in the collection, especially the Research File and Notes series, Writings File, Speech File, Slides and Visual Materials, and the Autoradiograph Film series. The bulk of the Autoradiograph Film series supplements the data of the Laboratory Notebooks of fourteen students. The Laboratory Notebooks also include digital files of collaborators who worked with Blackburn.

Material types included in the notebooks are notes, charts, photographs, negatives, autoradiograph films, laboratory literature, a little correspondence, printed matter, and digital files.
Arranged alphabetically into two groups: Blackburn, Elizabeth and collaborators and Students, postdoctoral researchers, and technicians. The Blackburn notebooks are further arranged chronologically. The notebooks of Students, postdoctoral researchers, and technicians are arranged according to the date that each student or technician worked with Blackburn. The file structure of the digital content maintained as received.
BOX 3 Blackburn, Elizabeth and collaborators
BOX 3 1975, nick translation end labels
(3 folders)
BOX 3 1975, rDNA transcription
BOX 3 1975-1976, Tetrahymena main peak rDNA
(3 folders)
BOX 4 1975-1979, Tetrahymena rDNA preparation
(3 folders)
BOX 4 1976-1977, BIV rDNA
(4 folders)
BOX 4 1976-1981, parlodion film preparation, polynucleodtide kinase, and southern evolutions from agarose gels
(2 folders)
BOX 5 1977, kinase rDNA
BOX 5 1977-1986, laboratory literature
(2 folders)
BOX 5 1978-1981, macronuclear DNA
(2 folders)
BOX 6 1978-1981, macronuclear DNA
(6 folders)
BOX 7 1978-1979, pTt 503
(2 folders)
BOX 7 1978-1979, Y DNA chromation, micrococcal nuclease, includes San Chiou notes and Blackburn's
(3 folders)
BOX 7 1978-1982, 1987-1988, plasmid methods
(1 folder)
BOX 8 1978-1982, 1987-1988, plasmid methods
(1 folder)
BOX 8 1978-1985, methods
BOX 8 1979-1980, rDNA structure See also OV 48, Film negatives
(3 folders)
BOX 8 1979-1981, methods
BOX 8 1979-1981, Tetrahymena enzyme
(1 folder)
BOX 9 1979-1981, Tetrahymena enzyme
(6 folders)
BOX 9 1979-1982, Tetrahymena rDNA
(3 folders)
BOX 10 1979-1982, Tetrahymena rDNA
(4 folders)
BOX 10 1980-1981, rDNA preparation
(5 folders)
BOX 11 1980-1983, Tetrahymena restriction of whole macronuclei and yeast linear plasmids See also OV 48, Autoradiograph films relating to Tetrahymena
(5 folders)
BOX 11 1981-1982, m-cresol preparation of Tetrahymena rDNA, includes Alisa Katzen notes and Blackburn's
(2 folders)
BOX 11 1981-1982, methylation of DNA in Tetrahymena thermophila
(2 folders)
BOX 12 1981-1982, methylation of DNA in Tetrahymena thermophila
(1 folder)
BOX 12 1981-1986, molecular biology protocols
BOX 12 1982, Tetrahymena strains
BOX 12 1982-1983, sequencing, 17S rRNA gene, includes Elizabeth Spangler's notes and Blackburn's
(5 folders)
BOX 12 1982-1983, trypanosoma brucei labeling experiments
(2 folders)
BOX 13 1982-1983, trypanosoma brucei labeling experiments
(3 folders)
BOX 13 1983-1984, methods
(4 folders)
BOX 13 1983-1985, laboratory literature
(2 folders)
BOX 14 1984-1995, laboratory literature
(3 folders)
BOX 14 1987, telomerase in vitro experiments
BOX 14 1990-1991, cloning
(4 folders)
BOX 14 1990-1993, oligonucleotide from Ingraham laboratory synthesizer
(2 folders)
BOX 15 1990-1993, oligonucleotide from Ingraham laboratory synthesizer
(2 folders)
BOX 15 1990-1997, telomere references
(4 folders)
BOX 15 2000, telomere sequences
(2 folders)
BOX 15 Students, postdoctoral researchers, or technicians
BOX 15 1979-1981, Pan Weijun, cloned cells, Tetrahymena, and single extrachromosomal RNA
BOX 15 Vol. 1
(2 folders)
BOX 16 Vol. 1
(3 folders)
BOX 16 Vol. 2
(3 folders)
BOX 16 Vol. 3
(3 folders)
BOX 17 1981-1983, Claudia Johnson, Tetrahymena gels and telomere cloning
BOX 17 Vol. 1
(4 folders)
BOX 17 Vol. 2
(5 folders)
BOX 18 1981-1987, Janis Shampay, telomeric sequences in Tetrahymena and yeast See also OV 48, Autoradiograph films and figures about telomeric sequences
BOX 18 Vol. 1
(4 folders)
BOX 18 Vol. 2
(3 folders)
BOX 18 Vol. 3
(1 folder)
BOX 19 Vol. 3
(1 folder)
BOX 19 Vol. 4
(3 folders)
BOX 19 Vol. 5
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