Paul Nurse - Early Life, Education, and Career

Early Life, Education, and Career

Nurse's mother came from Norfolk. His biological maternal grandmother pretended to be his mother while she was alive and his mother pretended to be his sister for her entire life too. He was born in Norwich, Norfolk, and was educated at Lyon Park school in Alperton and Harrow County School for Boys. He received his undergraduate degree in 1970 from the University of Birmingham and his PhD in 1973 from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of East Anglia. He continued his post-doctoral work at the laboratory of Murdoch Mitchison at the University of Edinburgh for the next six years (1973-1979).

Beginning in 1976, Nurse identified the gene cdc2 in yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe). This gene controls the progression of the cell cycle from G1 phase to S phase and the transition from G2 phase to mitosis. In 1987, Nurse identified the homologous gene in human, Cdk1, which codes for a cyclin dependent kinase.

In 1984, Nurse joined the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF, now Cancer Research UK). He left in 1988 to chair the department of microbiology at the University of Oxford. He then returned to the ICRF as Director of Research in 1993, and in 1996 was named Director General of the ICRF, which became Cancer Research UK in 2002. In 2003, he became president of Rockefeller University in New York City where he continues to work on the cell cycle of fission yeast. It was announced on 15 July 2010 that Nurse was to become the first Director and Chief Executive of the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation. He took up his post on 1 January 2011.

On 30 November 2010, Sir Paul succeeded Martin Rees as president of the Royal Society.