Pioneers of science Madame Marie Curie and her husband Pierre are shown in their lab in this undated photo. Six fathers-and-sons, four married couples and two brothers have won Nobels since the first awards were handed out in 1901. Marie Curie became the first woman laureate when she shared the physics prize in 1903 with her husband, Pierre. Marie went on to win a second Nobel eight years later, in chemistry. Their daughter Irene Joliot-Curie followed suit, sharing the 1935 chemistry prize with her husband Frederic Joliot for their synthesis of radioactive elements. (AP Photo, File)

The latest — Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Carol W. Greider — shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Jack W. Szostak for their work in solving the mystery of how chromosomes protect themselves from degrading when cells divide.

The first woman laureate was Marie Curie, who won Nobel Prizes in both physics and chemistry. Other women who have won Nobel Prizes include literature winners Toni Morrison and Doris Lessing and peace prize laureates Aung San Suu Kyi, a democracy activist in Myanmar, and Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi. No woman has ever won the economics prize since it was first given out in 1969.

The 10 women who have won the medicine prize are:

Gerty Cori, 1947
Rosalyn Yalow, 1977
Barbara McClintock, 1983
Rita Levi-Montalcini, 1986
Gertrude B. Elion, 1988
Christiane Nuesslein-Volhard, 1995
Linda B. Buck, 2004
Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, 2008
Carol W. Greider, 2009
Elizabeth H. Blackburn, 2009