cell cycle nobel lecture - misregulation

Another pivotal part of Hartwell’s lecture is his discussion of effects of mis-regulation of the cell cycle and its consequences regarding genomic stability and fidelity. The hallmark of cancer cells is uncontrolled cell growth and proliferation, but they also divide with far worse fidelity, or accuracy than normal cells. This loss of fidelity leads them to mutate and evolve quicker and makes cancer even harder to treat. Hartwell and Ted Weinert studied genes that could have a role in DNA damage checkpoints of the cell cycle and discovered the RAD9 gene, which when mutated resulted in a 20 fold increase in the rate of chromosome loss.  The controlling role of CDK in the cell cycle of frogs and yeast were discovered, and along with their homology, the mechanism by which CDK activity is regulated which is the, “series of regulatory signaling pathways, checkpoints, that keep the cell informed of each event’s progress.”