The Nobel prize Laureate, Director of the Francis Crick Institute and former President of the Royal Society Sir Paul Nurse has been invited by the Liverpool Cancer Research Institute (LCRI) to give a scientific talk which is aimed at our multidisciplinary cancer research community of all career stages both academic and clinical.

Paul Nurse is a geneticist and cell biologist whose discoveries have helped to explain how the cell controls its cycle of growth and division. Working in fission yeast, he showed that the cdc2 gene encodes a protein kinase, which ensures the cell is ready to copy its DNA and divide. Paul’s findings have broader significance since errors in cell growth and division may lead to cancer and other serious diseases.

Paul’s talk is titled “Controlling the Cell Cycle”.   

Both S-phase and M-phase are common to both mitotic and meiotic cell cycles and are necessary for newly divided cells to receive a full complement of genes.  In fission yeast the onset of S-phase and M-phase during both mitosis and meiosis can be brought about by a single cyclin dependent kinase replacing the 4 mitotic and 6 meiotic CDKs. In vivo protein kinase assays have shown that the substrate specificity is very similar for G1/S and G2/M CDKs.  Increasing levels of CDK activity bring about progression through the major events of cell cycles in an orderly fashion.  Using phosphoproteomics we show that a low CDK activity is sufficient to bring about S-phase whilst a high activity is needed for onset of mitosis.  A G2 cell can be programmed to undergo either S-phase or M-phase simply by modifying CDK activity indicating there is no inherent arrow of time in the cell cycle.  In vivo protein kinase assays show protein kinase activity increases 50-fold during the cell cycle, and part of this span of activity is related to cellular localisation.

The 45 min seminar will be followed by a 15 min Q&A with the entire in-person audience at Lecture Theatre 1, The Yoko Ono Lennon Centre, University of Liverpool.

This is a face-to-face popular event and to ensure you have a place please sign-up through the Eventbrite page via this link

If you are a PhD student and or PostDoc or early career clinical-academic and would like to take part in a separate 30 minute audience with Paul Nurse about the future challenges and opportunities in the field of cancer research and a perspective of how research careers are evolving please register via this link and follow the instructions.  There are only 25 places allocated on a first come first serve basis.  This event will take place between 15.30 and 16.00 on Wednesday April 27^th in the Yoko Ono Lennon Centre.