Leland H. Hartwell

Leland H. Hartwell is an American geneticist whose studies of budding yeast identified genes that control the cell cycle. He shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries about key regulators of the cell cycle.

Cell cycle: The ordered sequence of growth, DNA replication, and division through which a cell reproduces. Hartwell’s genetic work helped establish the cycle’s control system.
University of Washington: A public research university in Seattle, Washington, founded in 1861. Hartwell earned his doctorate there before beginning his scientific career.
Paul Nurse: A British geneticist who identified cell-cycle genes in fission yeast and shared the 2001 Nobel Prize. Nurse’s work complemented Hartwell’s discoveries in budding yeast.
Cell-cycle regulation: The molecular control of when and how cells progress through the cell cycle. Hartwell’s findings helped make regulated transitions a central framework for cell biology.
Cell-cycle checkpoint: A control mechanism that delays cell-cycle progression until a required condition is met. Hartwell proposed checkpoints that pause division when cellular processes are incomplete.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: A private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, known for science and engineering. Hartwell completed graduate training in biology at MIT.
Tim Hunt: A British biochemist who discovered cyclins and shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Hunt identified proteins that regulate the cell-cycle machinery Hartwell studied genetically.
Genetic screen: An experimental strategy for identifying genes through the phenotypes of mutations. Hartwell’s systematic screens made yeast genetics a powerful route to cell-cycle discovery.
CDC28: A budding-yeast gene encoding a cyclin-dependent kinase that regulates major cell-cycle transitions. Hartwell identified CDC28 as a central controller of yeast cell-cycle progression.
Seymour Benzer: An American molecular biologist who used fine-structure genetics to study gene organization and behavior. Benzer’s genetics course at MIT influenced Hartwell’s research direction.

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Protein kinaseRelated: Cell-cycle research helped reveal the regulatory role of cyclin-dependent kinases.