Nobel Prize for medicine awarded to Gurdon, Yamanaka for stem cell discoveries
Last edited Mon Oct 8, 2012, 03:20 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: Washington Post
British scientist John Gurdon and Japanese researcher Shinya Yamanaka shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine Monday for experiments separated by almost 50 years that provide deep insight into how animals develop and offer hope for a new era of personalized medicine.
“Their findings have revolutionized our understanding of how cells and organisms develop,” the Nobel committee said in the prize announcement.
In 1962, Gurdon wowed the world of biology by cloning a frog via a clever technique. He transplanted the genetic material from an intestinal cell of one frog into the fertilized egg cell from another. The egg developed into a tadpole, proving that all of the genetic instructions needed to turn an embryo into an adult exist even in so-called adult cells of the body — the specialized cells that make up skin, muscle, nerves and other tissues.
In 2006 and 2007, Yamanaka extended that insight by turning back time on individual cells from both mice and humans. By sprinkling four genes on ordinary skin cells, Yamanaka discovered a virtual fountain of youth for cells: Any type of cell, he found, could be reverted to a young, embryonic state. These “induced” embryonic cells behave much like the ethically contentious stem cells gleaned from human embryos. They can be grown into many other types of tissues but without having to destroy any embryos. ...
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/nobel-prize-for-medicine-awarded-for-stem-cell-discoveries/2012/10/08/ebd55128-1139-11e2-ba83-a7a396e6b2a7_story.html
NYT has a more detailed article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/health/research/cloning-and-stem-cell-discoveries-earn-nobel-prize-in-medicine.html
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Glad he made it to 79. But he's still working - "Gurdon, 79, was in a laboratory meeting at the research institute in Cambridge that bears his name Monday morning and reporters were told he was unavailable. "
And also that he has the proper mad scientist hair:
