On January 17, 2019, the Institute of Biomedicine of Seville - IBiS - had the visit of Sir Paul Nurse, Nobel Prize winner in Medicine or Physiology in 2001 for his discoveries of protein molecules that control the division of cells in the cellular cycle. Professor Nurse heads the Francis Crick Institute, Europe's largest biomedical research centre.
During his visit, Sir Paul held various working meetings with researchers from our Institute and learned first-hand about the research activity carried out in the field of Translational Medicine.
Professor López Barneo, as director of the IBiS, presented him with the diploma that accredits him as “IBiS Distinguished Investigator”, a distinction that our Institute dedicates to top-level scientists.
Dr. Sebastián Chávez outlined the scientific career and merits that mark the biography of Prof. Nurse, who subsequently gave the seminar titled “Controlling the Cell Cycle” before an auditorium packed with people, like never before in the history of our Institute.
In his talk he presented recent results with a simplified cyclin kinase model that demonstrates how, simply, changing the activity level of this enzyme controls the progression of the cell cycle through its different stages.
To round off his busy scientific programme in Seville, Prof. Nurse shared dinner with a group of young IBiS researchers who are initiating independent lines of research. At the dinner, Prof. Nurse, in addition to using an overflowing sense of humour, praised the positive evolution of Spanish science in recent decades and encouraged the young researchers to persevere in their work despite the great difficulties that carrying out a scientific project presents today in our country.
