Titles and Affiliations
President Emeritus, The Rockefeller University
New York, New York
Director and CEO, The Francis Crick Institute
London, United Kingdom
Research area
Understanding the regulation of genes that control breast tumor growth in order to develop new therapies.
Impact
Breast cancer is caused by genes becoming damaged, which leads to abnormal cell growth. Normally, human cells grow and multiply through a process called cell division to form new cells as the body needs them. When cells grow old or become damaged, they die, and new cells take their place. Sometimes this orderly process breaks down, and abnormal or damaged cells grow and multiply when they should not. These cells may form tumors, which can become cancerous. Dr. Nurse is investigating the mechanisms by which cells control their overall growth and reproduction. Understanding how these processes work normally and in breast cancer is essential to inform new breast cancer therapies.
Progress Thus Far
Dr. Nurse, whose seminal discoveries identifying cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) and their role in controlling the cell cycle earned him the 2001 Nobel Prize, continues to lead the field he helped establish. Over the past year, his team has made further strides in uncovering how cells control division. They found that cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs), the key drivers of cell division, first activate inside the nucleus before spreading throughout the cell, acting like a “pacemaker” that sets the timing for mitosis. Over the past year, the team extended this finding, showing that because this nuclear activation appears to set the tempo for the entire process of cell division, understanding it directly is central to understanding what goes wrong when breast cancer cells begin dividing uncontrollably. In addition, they found that a protein that boosts CDK function, CKS, is essential for both DNA copying and proper cell division, and that high levels of CKS in breast cancer cells are associated with poorer patient outcomes.
What’s next
Next, Dr. Nurse’s team will pursue three linked projects. The first will investigate the precise mechanisms by which CKS enhances and regulates CDK activity, building directly on this year’s finding linking high CKS levels to poor breast cancer outcomes. The second will examine how the specific proteins modified by CDK determine and shape the enzyme’s overall activity. The third will investigate how CDK functions and is regulated specifically within the cell nucleus. This work will build a detailed picture of how CKS affects CDK activity and could uncover important insights into the role of CKS in breast cancer, where cell cycle control is frequently disrupted. In addition, Dr. Nurse will explore the role of a protein called Cdc7, a downstream target of CDK, to uncover new insights into cell cycle control and potential vulnerabilities in cancer cells.
Biography
Paul Nurse, who shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, was president of The Rockefeller University from 2003 to 2011.
Dr. Nurse is noted for discoveries about molecular mechanisms that regulate the cell cycle, the process by which a cell copies its genetic material and divides into two cells. His work, which is fundamental to understanding growth and development, is also vital to cancer research, because mistakes in the cell duplication process can contribute to the formation of tumors.
Dr. Nurse earned a PhD at the University of East Anglia. He joined the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) in 1984, and in 1988 moved to Oxford University to chair the Microbiology Department. Dr. Nurse returned to the ICRF as director of research in 1993, and in 1996 he was appointed director general. In 2002, he became CEO of Cancer Research UK, which he formed by merging ICRF with the Cancer Research Campaign. Today at Rockefeller, he is president emeritus and a professor heading the Laboratory of Yeast Genetics and Cell Biology.
Dr. Nurse served as president of the Royal Society and is currently director and CEO of The Francis Crick Institute. He is a fellow of the Royal Society, a founding member of the U.K. Academy of Medical Sciences, and a foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In addition to the Nobel Prize, he has received numerous other awards and honors. Dr. Nurse was knighted in 1999, and in 2002 he was awarded France’s Légion d’Honneur.
