Lee Hartwell receives American Cancer Society Medal of Honor Sunday in New Orleans

Dr. Lee Hartwell, president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and UW professor of genetics and medicine, has received the American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor for his research on how cells control their replication and division.

Lee Hartwell

The award was presented Sunday, Nov. 7, in New Orleans. Hartwell’s Medal of Honor was for basic research. Two others were awarded this year to former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and Dr. Frederick Li of Boston.

Hartwell decided more than 30 years ago to study cell division in yeast cells because they are simpler and easier to manipulate than human cells. Hartwell published his first work on yeast in 1967. In 1970, his groundbreaking work on the cell cycle of yeast was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In the intervening years, yeast research has become an extremely important field and scientists have shown that yeast cells and human cells are far more similar than anyone had hoped. In fact many of the genes identified by Hartwell and his colleagues may be common to plants and animals.

His research has contributed greatly to understanding normal and abnormal cell growth and replication, and has led to the discovery of more than 50 genes that control the cell cycle. Understanding the cell cycle will lead to greater understanding of many diseases, in particular cancer.

Working with yeast, Hartwell first identified “checkpoints” in the cell division sequence. Lack of control at crucial points in cell division may contribute to the development of cancer.

He joined the UW genetics faculty in 1968 and has been director of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center since 1997.

In 1998, Hartwell received the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award. He has received numerous other international honors. ¶