Sir Paul Nurse: New perspectives on CDK control of the cell cycle

Paul Nurse, Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine 2001, will give his lecture “New perspectives on CDK control of the cell cycle” on May 27 at Imperial College London, in connection to the Nobel Prize Dialogue London 2026. The lecture will also be followed by a fireside chat with audience participation. The discussion will be chaired by Adam Smith, Chief Scientific Officer at Nobel Prize Outreach.

You are warmly encouraged to register via Eventbrite.

A complimentary drinks reception will be available for guests after the lecture.

Please note that photography will take place during the event. If you would prefer not to be photographed, please contact our team in advance at Fleming-events@imperial.ac.uk.

Speaker profile:

Paul Nurse received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2001 for discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle. He is a geneticist and cell biologist.

From the beginning organisms evolve from one cell, which divides and becomes new cells that in turn divide. Eventually different types of cells are formed with different roles. For an organism to function and develop normally, cell division has to occur at a suitable pace. Paul Nurse has helped to show how the cell cycle is controlled. Through studies of yeast in the mid-1970s, Nurse was able to show that a special gene plays a decisive role in several of the cell cycle’s phases. In 1987 he identified a corresponding human gene. In 2020 he wrote the book What is Life which has been published in 22 countries.

Paul Nurse was knighted in 1999 and made a Companion of Honour in 2022 for services to science and medicine in the UK and abroad, received the Legion d’honneur in 2003 from France, and the Order of the Rising Sun in 2018 from Japan. He served for 15 years on the UK Council of Science and Technology, advising the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and was a Chief Scientific Advisor for the European Union.

He is president of the Royal Society, has a research lab at the Francis Crick Institute in London, and is chancellor of the University of Bristol. He is also a former chief executive of Cancer Research UK, former president of Rockefeller University, and former director and chief executive of the Francis Crick Institute.

Paul Nurse flies gliders and vintage aeroplanes and has been a qualified bush pilot. He also likes the theatre, hill-walking, going to museums and art galleries, and running very slowly.