{"entity":{"id":"paper-shay-nat-rev-genet","kind":"paper","name":"Telomeres and telomerase: three decades of progress","aka":[],"tldr":"Paper cited by one pathway page, indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 30760854 and published in Nature reviews. Genetics; the citing page links this DOI, which is how the record was matched.","summary":"Many recent advances have emerged in the telomere and telomerase fields. This Timeline article highlights the key advances that have expanded our views on the mechanistic underpinnings of telomeres and telomerase and their roles in ageing and disease. Three decades ago, the classic view was that telomeres protected the natural ends of linear chromosomes and that telomerase was a specific telomere-terminal transferase necessary for the replication of chromosome ends in single-celled organisms. While this concept is still correct, many diverse fields associated with telomeres and telomerase have substantially matured. These areas include the discovery of most of the key molecular components of telomerase, implications for limits to cellular replication, identification and characterization of human genetic disorders that result in premature telomere shortening, the concept that inhibiting telomerase might be a successful therapeutic strategy and roles for telomeres in regulating gene expression. We discuss progress in these areas and conclude with challenges and unanswered questions in the field.\n\nIndexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 30760854 (DOI 10.1038/s41576-019-0099-1). Matched by DOI alone: one pathway page cites this DOI among its external links (the pages are listed under Related), and this page was written so that the citation resolves inside OnCo. No figure has been checked by an editor.","asOf":"2026-09-22","links":[{"label":"Nat Rev Genet 2019","url":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-019-0099-1"},{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30760854/"},{"label":"Europe PMC","url":"https://europepmc.org/article/MED/30760854"}],"tags":["europepmc-ingest"],"related":["telomere-maintenance"],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"journal":"Nature reviews. Genetics","year":2019,"doi":"10.1038/s41576-019-0099-1","pmid":"30760854","authors":"Shay JW, Wright WE","paperType":"review","findings":[],"whatItMeans":"One pathway page on OnCo cites this paper by its DOI; this record gives the citation a page of its own so a reader can follow it without leaving OnCo. Read the abstract above alongside the citing page listed under Related; the record was created automatically from the Europe PMC entry and its figures have not been checked by hand.","caveats":["Matched to the citing OnCo records by DOI alone; the summary reproduces the Europe PMC abstract and no figure has been verified against the full paper."]},"route":"/key-papers/paper-shay-nat-rev-genet/","neighbours":{"pathway":[{"id":"telomere-maintenance","kind":"pathway","name":"Telomere maintenance & replicative immortality","route":"/pathways/telomere-maintenance/"}]}}