Following his PhD studies, Nurse continued his
postdoctoral research at the laboratory of
Murdoch Mitchison at the
University of Edinburgh for the next six years (1973–1979). Beginning in 1976, Nurse identified the gene
cdc2 in
fission yeast (
Schizosaccharomyces pombe). This gene controls the progression of the cell cycle from
G1 phase to
S phase and the transition from
G2 phase to
mitosis. In 1987, Nurse identified the homologous gene in human,
Cdk1, which codes for a
cyclin dependent kinase. Working in fission yeast, Nurse identified the gene cdc2, which controls the transition from G1 to S, when the cell grows in preparation for the duplication of DNA, and G2 to M, when the cell divides. With his postdoctoral worker
Melanie Lee, Nurse also found the corresponding gene, CDK1, in humans. These genes activate and inactivate
cyclin dependent kinase (CDK) by causing phosphate groups to be added or removed. In 1984, Nurse joined the
Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF, now
Cancer Research UK). He left in 1988 to chair the department of microbiology at the
University of Oxford. He then returned to the ICRF as Director of Research in 1993, and in 1996 was named Director General of the ICRF, which became Cancer Research UK in 2002. In 2003, he became president of
Rockefeller University in
New York City where he continued work on the cell cycle of fission yeast. In 2011 Nurse became the first Director and Chief Executive of the
UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation, now the
Francis Crick Institute. On 30 November 2010, Nurse succeeded astrophysicist
Martin Rees for a five-year term as
President of the Royal Society until 2015. Nurse has said good scientists must have passion "to know the answer to the questions" that interest them, along with good technical ability, and a set of attitudes including intellectual honesty, self-criticism, open-mindedness and scepticism. ==Awards and honours==