Block Lectureship Awardee, Sir Paul Nurse, OM, CH, FRS
Sir Paul Nurse, OM, CH, FRS, was born in Norfolk and raised in London. He attended the University of Birmingham, where he received a degree in biology, and the University of East Anglia, where he received a PhD. Following his doctoral program, Dr. Nurse spent several months in Urs Leupold’s laboratory in Bern, Switzerland, where he studied classical genetics of fission yeast, a model organism in cell biology. The knowledge Dr. Nurse gained during that time became foundational for his career. He then completed postdoctoral studies on the cell cycle at the University of Edinburgh in Murdoch Mitchison’s laboratory, where he identified cell-cycle mutants and pinpointed the cdc2 gene as the control for progression from the G1 phase to the S phase of the cell cycle and from the G2 phase to mitosis (division).
Following his postdoctoral studies, Dr. Nurse set up his own laboratory at the University of Sussex. Here he built upon his previous work, cloning the cdc2 gene and showing that it encoded a protein kinase, an enzyme that adds phosphate groups, and can make a protein more or less active.
After joining the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) in 1984, Dr. Nurse identified the gene that corresponds to cdc2 in humans. In 1988, he became chair of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Oxford. While continuing to examine the cell cycle, Dr. Nurse expanded his focus to also study cell form and genomics.
He returned to the ICRF as director of research and then became director general of the organization as it transitioned to Cancer Research UK. In 2003, Dr. Nurse became president of Rockefeller University in New York City, but in 2010 he returned to London to join the Francis Crick Institute as its first director and chief executive. That year he also began a five-year stint as president of the Royal Society. Throughout these transitions, he continued to study the cell cycle, forms and the genomics of fission yeast.
Dr. Nurse has received numerous awards and honors for his research, including the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Leland Hartwell, PhD, and Tim Hunt, PhD, in recognition of their discoveries of protein molecules that control the division of cells during the cell cycle. Understanding this process and how to observe and interpret it sheds light on what happens when the cell cycle goes awry, leading to uncontrolled cell growth in conditions such as cancer. Dr. Nurse’s investigations are foundational to comprehending how life of all kinds sustains itself.