The British scientist who made a major biological advance with his discovery of a key gene in controlling cell division will give a public lecture at the University of California, Davis, on Thursday, Oct. 24. Several years ago, Paul Nurse, Napier Research Professor of the Royal Society at the University of Oxford, identified a key gene in yeast whose product is required for the initiation of both DNA replication and mitosis. Subsequently, it has been shown in mammalian cells that the same gene controls mitosis and that another similar gene appears to control DNA replication. Nurse's work, which has major implications for the control of cell division in all eukaryotic cells, has generated major research activity. Understanding the control of cell division is essential for understanding the normal development of an organism and for understanding the cellular process that leads to cancer, which results from the loss of control of cell division. Nurse's major studies are carried out with a single-celled organism, the yeast called S. pombe. In the past several years, studies of cell division in yeast have converged with biochemical analyses of cell division in mammalian cells and in early embryonic development of organisms such as frogs and sea urchins. Nurse's lecture, "Eukaryotic Cell Cycle Control," is part of the lecture series "Major Issues in Modern Biology." The lecture is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. in 180 Medical Sciences Building C.