The Nobel Assembly announced Monday that Leland H. Hartwell, PhD, American Cancer Society (ACS) Professor and former ACS Research Professor, and current president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He will share the award with two British scientists, R. Timothy Hunt, PhD, and Paul M. Nurse, PhD, for their discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle. Their work has already begun to impact the development of drugs for the treatment of cancer.

A pioneer who has spent his career unraveling the intricate web of genetics through the study of yeast, Hartwell has been a major creative force in the field of cell cycle research for over 30 years. Hartwell is the 32nd former ACS grantee to be awarded the Nobel Prize, the most prestigious honor a scientist can receive.

Hartwell, Nurse, and Hunt will share the $943,000 award presented by the Nobel Assembly. Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded annually on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish-born inventor and international industrialist for whom the award is named. In addition to physiology or medicine, the Nobel Prize is awarded in physics, chemistry, literature, economic sciences, and peace.

Using the medium of yeast, specifically Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Hartwell has closely examined the cell cycle and has identified more than 50 genes crucial to controlling the complicated choreography by which a cell grows, rests, and divides. Yeast is a particularly useful medium to study because the cellular changes it undergoes during division tracks the human cell cycle, making the observations valid for both organisms.

Hartwell’s research has revealed that many genes, so-called checkpoint genes, function at only one point in the cell cycle. They ensure that each developmental step occurs in the proper order. In the normal course of the cell cycle of any organism, errors are likely as information encoded in DNA is passed along, but checkpoints enable the cell to monitor the accuracy of its DNA transmission and to make repairs as necessary before continuing on.

Recognizing the importance of these checkpoints, Hartwell proposed that abnormalities that occur along the way, often leading to the uncontrolled growth characteristic of cancer, are key to understanding tumor cell biology.

Today, in a natural progression of Hartwell’s research, investigators are now using the knowledge gained from his yeast-related studies to formulate new strategies for drug discovery and therapy against cancer and other diseases.

The ACS first recognized the potential of Hartwell’s work with a grant in 1974-76 That was just four years after he published his groundbreaking work on the cell cycle of yeast in 1970, and just six years after he earned his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Hartwell also held an ACS Scholar Grant during a sabbatical in 1983-1984. From 1990-1997, he was an ACS Research Professor, resigning when he became director of Fred Hutchinson Center. He continues to hold the title of ACS Professor today. In 1999, the ACS awarded him its Medal of Honor for his contributions to basic science.

Hartwell earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the California Institute of Technology and MIT, respectively. He was on the faculty at the University of California from 1965-1968. In 1968, he joined the University of Washington department of genetics and became a professor of genetics there in 1973, a position he continues to hold. Then in 1996, he joined the faculty of the Fred Hutchinson Center and was named its president and director in 1997.