Sir Paul Nurse

Paul Nurse was born in Norwich, United Kingdom, on January 25, 1949.⁠[1]

The relatives who raised him were born in Norfolk, worked in the big houses of that rural county in their early years and later moved to Wembley in north-west London. He was the youngest of four children.⁠[2]

His walks to primary school sparked an interest in nature and astronomy; he recalls watching Sputnik 2 cross the London sky in 1957, and he has remained an amateur astronomer.⁠[2]

In 1960 Nurse entered Harrow County Grammar School for Boys. He found examinations difficult but enjoyed hiking and learned to fly, and a biology teacher encouraged him to carry out experiments.⁠[2]

Lacking a required qualification in French, he at first could not go to university and worked as a technician in a Guinness-linked microbiology laboratory; Professor Jinks at the University of BirminghamUniversity of BirminghamThe University of Birmingham is a research university in Birmingham, England. It grew out of Mason Science College, founded by Josiah Mason in 1875, received its Royal Charter from Queen Victoria in 1900 and is a member of the Russell Group.Open the full entry arranged his admission, and he began a biology degree there in 1967.⁠[2]

In 1970 he graduated from the University of Birmingham with a BSc in biological sciences. There he met his wife, Anne, who was studying sociology.⁠[3][4][2]

At the University of East Anglia Nurse studied enzymes during the cell cycle of a fungus, the yeast Candida utilis, under Tony Sims, and received a PhD in cell biology and biochemistry in 1973.⁠[2][5][3]

After reading Lee Hartwell’s work in 1972, Nurse turned to genetic studies of the cell cycle and in 1973 trained with Urs Leupold at the University of Bern.⁠[2][3]

From 1974 to 1980 Nurse was a postdoctoral researcher in Murdoch Mitchison’s laboratory at the University of EdinburghUniversity of EdinburghThe University of Edinburgh is a research university in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the Town Council in 1583, it is one of Scotland’s four ancient universities and a member of the Russell Group.Open the full entry.⁠[3][5]

In the mid-1970s he discovered the cdc2 gene in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe and showed that it controls the transition from G2 to mitosis; he later found that cdc2 was identical to the “start” gene that Hartwell had identified in baker’s yeast, which controls the transition from G1 to S.⁠[6]

From 1980 to 1984 Nurse ran a laboratory at the University of Sussex, developing molecular genetic methods for fission yeast.⁠[3][2]

From 1984 to 1987 Nurse was Head of Laboratory at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in Lincoln’s Inn Fields.⁠[3][2]

In 1987 he isolated the corresponding human gene, later named CDK1.⁠[6]

In 1988 Nurse became Professor of Microbiology at the University of OxfordUniversity of OxfordThe University of Oxford is a university in Oxford, England, where teaching existed in some form by 1096; it describes itself as the oldest university in the English-speaking world and is organised as a federal system of the university and dozens of self-governing colleges.Open the full entry, chairing its Department of Microbiology.⁠[2][5]

In 1993 Nurse returned to the Imperial Cancer Research Fund as Director of Research, a post he held until 1996, and was its Director-General from 1996 to 2002.⁠[3][2]

On October 8, 2001, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was announced for Leland H. Hartwell, Tim Hunt and Nurse, each receiving a one-third share, “for their discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle.” At the time of the award Nurse was affiliated with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London.⁠[7][6][1]

On December 9, 2001, Nurse delivered his Nobel Lecture, “Controlling the Cell Cycle.”⁠[8]

After the Imperial Cancer Research Fund merged with the Cancer Research Campaign to form Cancer Research UK, Nurse served as its Director-General in 2002 and Chief Executive in 2002–2003.⁠[3][4]

In 2003 Nurse moved to the United States to become President of The Rockefeller University in New York, serving until 2011, after which he became President Emeritus; he has been a professor there since 2003.⁠[3][4]

In a February 2008 addendum to his Nobel autobiography, Nurse wrote that when he applied for a US green card at the age of 57, his birth certificate showed that the woman he had believed to be his sister was his mother and that he had been raised by his grandparents; he does not know who his father is.⁠[2]

In 2010 Nurse became Director and Chief Executive of the Francis Crick Institute, a biomedical research institute established by a consortium of the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust, University College LondonUniversity College LondonUniversity College London (UCL) is a university in London, England, United Kingdom. Founded in 1826, it is a member of the Russell Group.Open the full entry, Imperial College LondonImperial College LondonImperial College London is a university in London, England, United Kingdom. Formed under a royal charter in 1907, it focuses on science, technology and medicine and is a member of the Russell Group.Open the full entry and King’s College LondonKing's College LondonKing’s College London is a research university in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1829, it is a member of the Russell Group.Open the full entry.⁠[5][3]

His laboratory is split between the Francis Crick Institute, its main site, and The Rockefeller University.⁠[3]

Nurse became President of the Royal Society in December 2010 and served until 2015.⁠[4][3]

In October 2013 Nurse gave the inaugural Humphreys Lecture at the University of Birmingham, titled “Controlling the Cell Cycle.”⁠[4]

On November 19, 2015, the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills published Ensuring a successful research endeavour: review of the UK research councils, an independent review led by Nurse that recommended how the UK research councils could evolve to support research more effectively. The review had been announced in December 2014 as part of the government’s science and innovation strategy.⁠[9]

On July 9, 2024, the Francis Crick Institute announced the appointment of Edith Heard as Director and Chief Executive, succeeding Nurse, its founding Director and Chief Executive; she was expected to take up the post in summer 2025. Nurse said he would step down from the Director role and keep his laboratory team at the institute to continue his research.⁠[10]

In 2025 Edith Heard joined the Francis Crick Institute as Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Nurse.⁠[11][10]

Using genetic and molecular methods, Nurse identified, cloned and characterized cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK), showing that CDK drives the cell through the cell cycle by phosphorylating other proteins, that its function is highly conserved in evolution, and that its activation depends on reversible phosphorylation.⁠[6]

Of his fellow 2001 laureates, Hartwell identified more than 100 cell division cycle (CDC) genes in baker’s yeast and introduced the “checkpoint” concept, and Hunt discovered the first cyclin in sea urchins in the early 1980s.⁠[6]

His research uses fission yeast as a model to study the molecular mechanisms of cell reproduction, cell growth and cell form, and his laboratory’s recent work covers cell cycle control, cell growth and nuclear size homeostasis.⁠[3]

Nurse received the Canada Gairdner International Award, the Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award and the Louis Jeantet Prize in 1992, the Royal Society’s Royal Medal in 1995, the Alfred P. Sloan Jr. Prize in 1997, the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 1998, a knighthood in 1999, the Légion d’Honneur in 2002, the Royal Society’s Copley Medal in 2005, the Albert Einstein World Award of Science in 2013 and the Henry G. Friesen International Prize in 2015.⁠[3]

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization and a Foreign Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and holds more than 60 honorary degrees and fellowships.⁠[5][3]

In 2003 the University of Bristol awarded Nurse an honorary degree.⁠[5]

Nurse became Chancellor of the University of Bristol on January 1, 2017. In December 2021 the university’s Court approved a five-year extension, so that his term runs from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2026. The university lists him among its Nobel laureates.⁠[5][12]