Cyclin-dependent kinase is a protein kinase involved in regulation of the cell cycle. A cyclin-dependent kinase is activated by association with a cyclin forming a cyclin-dependent kinase complex.
Leland H. Hartwell, R. Timothy Hunt, and Paul M. Nurse won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of cyclin and cyclin-dependent kinase, central molecules in the regulation of the cell cycle.