Students anticipate Nobel winner's talk

In 1999, Queen Elizabeth II knighted Dr. Paul Nurse, a British biochemist, for his contributions to cancer research in Great Britain. Two years later, Sir Paul Nurse won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with two of his colleagues.

Next week, Nurse will be joining Johns Hopkins history by visiting our very own Homewood campus as part of a revamped "Pioneers in Biology" Series.

Dr. Allen Shearn, chairperson of the Hopkins Biology Department, said that this event "is especially significant because the graduate students have been planning it for a year."

Alex Ebie, one of the students responsible for bringing Nurse to campus, explained that the process started last October when all the biology graduate students were contacted for ideas on speakers. Unfortunately, not many responded.

"No one thought we were going to be able to get anyone to come," she explained. However, a small group of students formed a committee and began generating ideas. Ebie said that they were looking for someone who not only had done significant research in their field, but who had curiosity, a passion for science and was devoted to mentoring younger scientists.

"From everybody we've talked to and all the interactions we've had with him, [Nurse] really embodies that," she said. They eliminated other possible speakers due to their distance from Baltimore, their age or their reputations.

The "Pioneers in Biology" series, completely organized by graduate students in the Hopkins Department of Biology, consists of two lectures held on alternating years. The first, which Nurse's lecture is part of, is the Thomas H. Morgan Lecture Series, focusing on developmental and cellular biology. The second, the Christian Anfinsen Lectures, will focus on biochemistry. Nobel Prize winner Stanley Pruisner is already booked to kick off this series next fall.

In order to get the most out of Nurse's visit next week, Ebie and the other organizers have planned a busy two days for him, including meetings with faculty members, breakfasts and lunches with graduate students and post-doctoral students.

The highlight, of course, will be his lecture on Thursday evening, which is open to the entire Hopkins community. Nurse will be speaking about his research on the cell cycle, the succession of growth and reproduction that all living cells go through during their lifetimes.

Nurse's research specifically focuses on one particular gene that is responsible for regulating the cell cycle. In yeast, where it was originally studied, this gene is called cdc2.

Nurse isolated the human version of this gene in 1987, and it was named CDK1. Nurse's research has the potential to lead to cures for certain cancers.

Nurse's talk, entitled "Cell Cycle Control in Fission Yeast" will be held in Mudd Auditorium at 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 20. A reception will follow.