Hartwell is President and
Director of Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer
Research Center
and Professor of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington.
Hartwell's primary research contributions were in identifying genes that
control cell division in yeast including those necessary for the division
process as well as those necessary for the fidelity of genome reproduction.
Subsequently many of these same genes have been found to control cell division
in humans and often to be the site of alteration in cancer cells.
Recently his interests have turned to how we can use the enormous knowledge that has been gained about biology can be used to improve healthcare. He believes that the most efficient path is to improve molecular diagnostics to identify individuals at high risk for disease, detect cancer and other disease at an early stage when they can be cured, provide prognostic information and monitor therapeutic response. Proteins will likely provide the best diagnostic information because of their greater diversity and because their state reflects biological function. He has directed his efforts recently to national and international projects to increase the number of laboratories working in the protein diagnostics, develop more team science, improve the availability of informatics for data sharing, provide standardized reagents, and stimulate new technology development.
Hartwell a member of the National Academy of Sciences and received the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the Gairdner Foundation International Award, the Alfred P. Sloan Award in Cancer Research and the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.