Dr. Nurse’s research focuses on the molecular machineries that control cell division and cell shape. Using fission yeast as a model system, Dr. Nurse studies the cell cycle and cell morphogenesis controls operative in eukaryotic cells. His contributions include the co-discovery of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) as the key regulator molecule controlling mitosis and S phase, and his findings have had implications for understanding cell reproduction, cell growth, development and cancer.
Dr. Nurse’s research has greatly broadened scientists’ understanding of how cells divide and how cell division goes awry in diseases such as cancer. Dr. Nurse identified genes corresponding to CDK, paving the way for scientists to identify six different CDK molecules in human cells and to find that higher than normal levels of CDK characterize some human tumors such as breast cancer.
The Rockefeller University - Heads of Laboratories - Paul Nurse