Conversations in genetics. Vol. 1, No. 1: Talking with Lee Hartwell.

Recorded on October 19, 1997, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA., Rochelle Easton Esposito, Professor at the University of Chicago, talks to Professor Leland Hartwell, President and Director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Hartwell pioneered the genetic analysis of the cell cycle, discovering temperature-sensitive mutants in budding yeast that arrest at various stages of mitotic division. Their study led to detection of a critical protein kinase later recognised, in association with cyclins, to be a key component of the regulatory machinery governing cell cycle progression across species. With Ted Weinert, he developed the concept of checkpoint controls which prevent division in cells subjected to environmental insults or defective in crucial gene functions. His work on yeast mating also helped reveal a central signal transduction pathway regulating cell division in response to pheromones and external stimuli. Hartwell's insights into the process of cell growth and division in yeast have had a profound impact on understanding the basis of cell proliferation and cancer in higher organisms. In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work.