[Science Report]:Nobel Prize for Medicine


This is the VOA SpecialEnglish Science Report.

Three scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine fordiscovering how genes and molecules control cell division in livingorganisms. The scientists are Paul Nurse and R. Timothy Hunt ofBritain and Leland Hartwell of the United States. They will sharethe prize of almost one-million dollars awarded by the KarolinskaInstitute in Stockholm, Sweden.

Doctor Nurse and Doctor Hunt work for the Imperial CancerResearch Fund in London. Doctor Hartwell is director of the FredHutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. The NobelAssembly says it is honoring the men for their study of how cellsmake exact copies of their chromosomes and then divide into morecells. That process is called the cell cycle.The three scientistshave been researching the cell cycle independently for thirty years.In the Nineteen-Seventies, Doctor Hartwell began studying cells ofyeast, an organism with a very simple genetic structure.

Doctor Hartwell identified the yeast genes that control celldivision. He found that a cell checks to make sure it has correctlycopied its chromosomes before it divides. Doctor Hartwell showedthat the division process stops if a cell's genetic material isdamaged. It starts again when the damage is repaired.

Doctor Nurse's research expanded on these findings. He discoveredthe yeast gene that leads the cell cycle. Later, he identified asimilar gene in human cells. He called it C-D-K. It produces aprotein that controls different parts of the cell cycle. DoctorNurse's findings on normal cell division were important for thestudy of the uncontrollable division of cancerous cells.

Doctor Hunt worked with the cells of sea urchins. He discoveredthat a protein called cyclin has an important part in the cellcycle. Cyclins work with the gene C-D-K to drive the cell cycle.

Scientists around the world have been using the discoveries ofthese three Nobel Prize winners. Their discoveries about the cellcycle are helping scientists learn more about cancer, which spreadsby abnormal cell division. Companies are developing new drugs tocontrol cancer by stopping cell division. Scientists also may beable to use the information to create new healthy body tissues. Thethree scientists will receive their Nobel Prizes December tenth at aceremony in Stockholm.

This VOA Special English Science Report was written by CatyWeaver.

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