PITTSBURGH -- Leland H. Hartwell, Ph.D., president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Research Center at the University of Washington, will present the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s 82nd Mellon Lecture at 4:00 p.m. Monday, June 10, in Lecture Room 6, Scaife Hall, 3550 Terrace St., Oakland. Dr. Hartwell’s lecture was originally scheduled as part of last September’s Science 2001 – A Research Odyssey, a showcase of research at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Hartwell’s lecture, “From Yeast Cell Division to Human Cancer: The Unity of Biology,” will focus on his work using baker’s yeast to study fundamental biological processes such as cell division and growth. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his seminal discovery of cell cycle checkpoints – a major advance in understanding the mechanisms controlling cell growth. These checkpoints notice when mistakes have been made during cellular reproduction and halt cell division so that repairs can take place. Dr. Hartwell’s ideas and experimental work have stimulated new research initiatives by many laboratories around the world and have been instrumental in the development of therapeutic strategies for diseases caused by uncontrolled cell growth.

After completing his Ph.D. at M.I.T., Dr. Hartwell began his professional research at the Salk Institute, but it wasn’t until he moved to the University of California at Irvine that he began his work with yeast. In 1996, he joined the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the faculty of the University of Washington as a professor of genetics.

Dr. Hartwell has received numerous awards and honors over the course of his career including the Brandeis University Rosensteil Award, the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Katherine Berkan Judd Award, the Genetics Society of America Medal, the MGH Warren Triennial Prize, the Columbia University Horwitz Award, the Passano Award and the Albert Lasker Award for medical research.

Funds originally provided by the late R.B. Mellon and the Sarah Mellon Scaife and Richard King Mellon foundations have enabled the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine to recognize an eminent investigator in the medical sciences each year for the past eight decades.

For more information, contact: Jocelyn Uhl UhlJH@msx.upmc.edu 412-647-3555