DMMC Course MODEL SYSTEMS IN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH: SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS

1145-1300 Thursday 27 April 2006. UCD Conway Institute Seminar Room 2

Yeast: the cell cycle
Technical Spotlight: conditional mutagenesis
Prof Noel Lowndes (Department of Biochemistry, National University of Ireland, Galway)

Yeast, both budding and fission, have led the way with respect to our understanding of cell cycle control. Moreover, as these two model systems are so phylogenetically diverged, observations made in both yeasts invariably equates with conservation in human cells. The extreme genetic tractability and relative simplicity of both yeast model systems allowed yeast researchers great advantages with respect to the early cell cycle studies. In particular, pioneering conditional mutagenesis studies from the Hartwell and Nurse laboratories identified the key regulators of all cell cycle transitions and defined the origins of all modern cell cycle research.

Lowndes Lab web page: http://www.nuigalway.ie/faculties_departments/biochemistry/staff/lowndes/