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Dr. Hartwell will give the 2004 Langerhans-Virchow Lecture
About Leland H. Hartwell, Ph. D.

  

Leland H. Hartwell, Ph. D.
In 2001, Dr. Leland Hartwell received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for his pioneering discoveries of the mechanisms of cell division. Using the budding yeast that is essential for brewing beer and baking bread, Dr. Hartwell identified many genes that control cell division. These same genes that operate in yeast have subsequently been found to control cell division in humans and to play key roles in the development of cancer. In his work with yeast, Dr. Hartwell also discovered a critical new class of gene: "checkpoint" genes. These genes react to mistakes that have been made during cellular reproduction by halting cell division so that repair can take place.

Dr. Hartwell was educated at the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has held research appointments at the Salk Institute and at the University of California, Irvine, in addition to holding a position as professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington since 1973. In 1997, he became the President and Director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Dr. Hartwell has received many other national and international scientific awards, including the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the Gairdner Foundation International Award and the Alfred P. Sloan Award in cancer research. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences.