Panel 1 — The Question
Visual: Young Paul Nurse at a desk, thinking deeply, with poster in the background of dividing budding yeast cells, some bigger than others, with “Lee Hartwell” appearing on it.
Caption: As a grad student, Paul Nurse wondered about the fundamentals of life.
Paul: “All living things reproduce – a good place to start.”
Panel 2 — Inspiration & Discovery
Visual: Nurse at a microscope, spotting two odd yeast cells amongst others that are normally long and “sausage” shaped, and these odd ones are smaller than the rest. In the background, a whiteboard with “critical genes” and a list of them.
Caption: Paul looked for fission yeast cell mutants that couldn’t divide, to understand which genes are critical for reproduction.
Paul: “What a strange wee mutant!”
Panel 3 — From Yeast to Humans
Visual: Paul and Melanie Lee looking at a whiteboard laying out an experiment in a sketch format, where a “library of human genes” is going to be “sprinkled” onto “mutant yeast cells with defective cdc2”
Caption: The wee mutant had a defective protein kinase that acts as a “brake” for another protein that drives cell division: CDC2. Paul and Melanie Lee planned an experiment to determine if a CDC2-equivalent is present in humans.
Paul: "Cdc2 is the key!"
Melanie: "But does it exist in humans?"
Panel 4 — Eureka
A zoom in of a pipette dropping “human DNA” library of genes onto small wee mutant yeast cells that aren’t dividing… One of the cells is now because it took up one of the genes, dividing.
Caption: “Eureka!”
Paul: "This means..."
Melanie: “CDC2 is conserved in all complex organisms!!”
Panel 5 — Legacy & Impact
Visual:
Older Paul Nurse with a Nobel medal and a Lasker prize on his desk, looking at a magazine news article labeled “CDK1 – A Target for Cancer Therapy.”
Caption: Paul’s curiosity led to the discovery of a master regulator of the cell cycle.
Paul: “Stay curious!”
I worked with @tysonmedstudios.bsky.social to create this sketchy comic about Paul Nurse’s groundbreaking work on genes that control the cell cycle! Worked on this as a “bonus” to a job interview assignment. If you love it let us know. 🥰 #scicomm @nobelprize.bsky.social
