An American and two Britons have won this year's Nobel Prize for Medicine for their research on cancer cells which might in the future, open possibilities for successful cancer treatment.
American Leland Hartwell, along with Britons Tim Hunt and Paul Nurse, have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine, 2001 for their pioneering research on cell division. Cells are the basic structures of the body and they need to divide in order for the body to grow. Till now, it was not clearly known how and why cells divide and what triggers their division. When there is an abnormality or mistake in the process of cell division, diseases like cancer may occur. In cancer, cells divide uncontrollably and a tumour is formed that may or may not be malignant. Malignant cancers are one of the major killers all over the world and treatment is not available for a large number of cancers in the advanced stage.
Leland Hartwell who works at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, discovered a class of genes that oversee the cycle of cell division. Tim Hunt who works with the Imperial Cancer Research Centre in London conducted research on the special molecules that are responsible for kick-starting the process of cell division. Paul Nurse, who also works at the same institute as Hunt researched the proteins that determine the speed of division of cells. Both Leland and Nurse started their researches on yeast cells. Leland discovered a set of 100 genes that supervise cell division in yeast cells. Nurse, in 1987 isolated a human gene that helps in the production of a protein called CDK that aids cell division.
In a normal human being, cell division occurs with a series of chemical reactions that allow cell division to progress smoothly. If any hitch in the process is detected, the cells stop multiplying at once. In cases, where this automatic shutting down does not occur, cancer results. Once all biological processes in cell division are clearly known, new treatment for curbing uncontrollable cell growth in cancer may be developed.
Reuters