EXAMS AND ME

They Will Kill You

Snapshot

Cyclins

The Cell Cycle

2001: Nobel Prize In Physiology/Medicine

The importance of this discovery was recognized with the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, awarded to:

Leland H. Hartwell
Tim Hunt
Paul Nurse

For discovering:

Key regulators of the cell cycle (cyclins and CDKs)
The conserved nature of cell cycle control

Understanding CDKs has had huge clinical implications:

Dysregulated CDKs → cancer
Development of CDK inhibitors (e.g., Palbociclib) for cancer therapy

Palbociclib

After the discovery of CDKs (by Paul Nurse, Leland H. Hartwell, and Tim Hunt), scientists realized: Overactive CDK4/6 → uncontrolled cell proliferation → cancer

Developed by Pfizer
Originally known as PD-0332991
Designed as a selective CDK4/6 inhibitor
It arrests cells in G1 phase by preventing phosphorylation of the Rb (retinoblastoma) protein

FDA Approved CDK Inhibitors

Snapshot

Pox

Poxviruses belong to the family Poxviridae, a group of large, double-stranded DNA viruses that infect humans and animals. The most famous member is Variola virus, which causes smallpox.

The mummy of Ramesses V (d. ~1157 BCE) shows skin lesions consistent with smallpox.

Pox Virus - Molluscum Contagiosum

Henderson–Patterson bodies are characteristic inclusion bodies seen in infection with the Molluscum contagiosum virus, a member of the Poxviridae.

First clearly described by:
F. G. Henderson
R. W. Patterson

📅 Year: ~1905–1910 (early 20th century)