Cell cycle scientist to give lecture

Tim Hunt, a 2001 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his groundbreaking work on cell cycle regulation, will give the keynote lecture for the upcoming seventh Chancellor's Science Seminar Series.

The lecture -- entitled "What Is the Cell Cycle, and How Is It Controlled?" -- will be held at 7 p.m. March 17 at the Kenan-Flagler Business School's McColl Building auditorium. The lecture is free to the public, and a reception will follow the event.

The Chancellor's Science Seminar Series, presented by the College of Arts and Sciences, is designed to spotlight the work of world-renowned investigators in the basic and applied sciences, and enhance the public's awareness of the relevance of these scientific discoveries to their daily lives. The series is made possible with support from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies.

Symposium speaker Besides delivering the Chancellor's Science Seminar, Tim Hunt will serve as the keynote speaker for the 27th Annual Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Symposium, to be held March 18 and 19. For more information on the symposium, see cancer.med.unc.edu/symposium2003/.

"We are thrilled that Dr. Hunt will share insights from his profound discoveries about the cell cycle," said Risa Palm, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "His lecture will be meaningful to scientists and other scholars as well as members of the general public, including students from our local schools."

An adult human's body is made up of about 100,000 billion cells -- a number that, in each person, started with a process where one single cell (the fertilized egg cell) divided. The cell cycle is critical in the life of an organism, as continuously dividing cells replace dying cells.

Hunt, principal scientist with the Cancer Research UK's Clare Hall Laboratories, and Leland Hartwell and Paul Nurse received the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their groundbreaking discoveries concerning control of the cell cycle. Hunt was honored for his 1982 discovery of cyclins, which turned out to be key regulators of the cell cycle.

These 2001 Nobel recipients' research has been hailed worldwide for its potential to advance the fields of biology and medicine. In particular, the deepened understanding of the cell cycle has been heralded as potentially adding crucial insight into the future treatment of cancer.

Hunt was born in 1943 and went to school in Oxford, England. He received his bachelor of arts and doctorate degrees from the University of Cambridge and spent almost 30 years in Cambridge. He has spent considerable time in the United States, serving as a postdoctoral fellow at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (1968-70) and teaching and performing research at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.

He co-wrote "The Cell Cycle: An Introduction" with Andrew Murray and "Molecular Biology of the Cell: A Problems Approach" with John Wilson, which is a companion volume to "The Molecular Biology of the Cell," of which National Academy of Sciences president Bruce Alberts serves as principal author.

Hunt is a fellow of the Royal Society, a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of Academia Europaea.