UK's Gurdon, Japan's Yamanaka win Nobel Prize for medicine

[xchrom]

http://www.france24.com/en/20121008-nobel-prize-medicine-uk-japan-gurdon-yamanaka-stem-cells-research



John Gurdon of Cambridge University and Shinya Yamanaka (pictured) of Japan’s Kyoto University have won the Nobel Prize for medicine for their work on stem cells, discovering that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become any tissues of the body.

Shinya Yamanaka of Japan and John Gurdon of Britain won the Nobel Prize on Monday for work in cell programming, a frontier that has raised dreams of growing replacement tissue for people crippled by disease.

The two scientists were lauded for determining that adult cells can be transformed back to an infant, versatile state called stem cells.

"Their findings have revolutionised our understanding of how cells and organisms develop," the Nobel jury declared.

[xchrom]

1. Discovery That Mature Cells Can Be Reprogrammed to Become Pluripotent

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121008082955.htm

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012 Awarded for Discovery That Mature Cells Can Be Reprogrammed to Become Pluripotent

ScienceDaily (Oct. 8, 2012) — The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has decided to award The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012 jointly to John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent.

The Nobel Prize recognizes two scientists who discovered that mature, specialised cells can be reprogrammed to become immature cells capable of developing into all tissues of the body. Their findings have revolutionised our understanding of how cells and organisms develop.

John B. Gurdon discovered in 1962 that the specialisation of cells is reversible. In a classic experiment, he replaced the immature cell nucleus in an egg cell of a frog with the nucleus from a mature intestinal cell. This modified egg cell developed into a normal tadpole. The DNA of the mature cell still had all the information needed to develop all cells in the frog.

Shinya Yamanaka discovered more than 40 years later, in 2006, how intact mature cells in mice could be reprogrammed to become immature stem cells. Surprisingly, by introducing only a few genes, he could reprogram mature cells to become pluripotent stem cells, i.e. immature cells that are able to develop into all types of cells in the body.