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The orderly and accurate division of cells is vital to the survival of all living things. This year's Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology goes to three biologists¿Leland H. Hartwell, Paul Nurse and R. Timothy Hunt¿who have discovered the key steps that lead up to division in eukaryotic cells. Understanding these steps, known as the cell cycle, may point to new possibilities for treating cancer. Indeed, defective control of the cell cycle contributes to chromosomal changes seen in cancer cells. And some of the genes that regulate the cell cycle can also function as oncogenes.
The 2001 Nobels for Medicine or Physiology, which were announced yesterday, mark the 100th anniversary of the famous prizes, first outlined in Alfred Bernhard Nobel's will from 1895. The winners will accept their medals on December 10th with the laureates from other fields at the Stockholm Concert Hall in Sweden.¿Kristin Leutwyler
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