The 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for their groundbreaking work on cellular reprogramming. Gurdon showed in 1962 that mature frog cells could be reprogrammed to an embryonic state. Almost 50 years later, Yamanaka discovered that four genes could reprogram mouse and human skin cells back to an embryonic stem cell-like state, showing that any cell can potentially be turned back time. Their combined work demonstrated that specialized cells contain all the genetic information to become any other cell type, opening up new avenues for regenerative medicine research.
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Nobel Prize winners 2012
1. Nobel Prize winners 2012
Physiology/Medicine
Compilation from News gallery of Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2012-nobel-laureates/2012/10/08/c5406a9e-1179-
11e2-ba83-a7a396e6b2a7_gallery.html
2. The Nobel Prize announcements began
Monday with the award in medicine, which
was given to John Gurdon and Shinya
Yamanaka . The prize for physics will be
awarded on Tuesday, followed by chemistry
on Wednesday and literature on Thursday.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on
Friday and the Nobel Memorial Prize in
Economic Sciences will follow on Monday,
Oct. 15.
Washington Post
3. Oct. 8, 2012
Developmental biologist Sir John Gurdon attends a news conference
after winning the Nobel Prize for medicine in London. The British
scientist shared the prize with Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka
for separate experiments conducted almost 50 years apart. 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 an egg cell from another. The egg developed into
a tadpole, showing that ordinary cells contain the entire genetic
instruction manual for whole organism.
Washington Post
4. Gurdon, 79, poses for photographs at a press conference after
being awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in London. Gurdon is
an emeritus professor at Cambridge University who conducts
research at a Cambridge institute that bears his name; he was
knighted in 1995 for his work in developmental biology. His frog
experiments a half-century ago showed that scientists should be
able to derive any one kind of cell from another, because theyve
all got the same genes, Gurdon said at the news briefing.
Washington Post
5. Sept. 1, 2008
Japanese scientist Shinya
Yamanaka seen at Kyoto
Universitys Institute for Frontier
Medical Science in 2008
received the Nobel Prize in
medicine. In 2006 and 2007,
Yamanaka extended the insights
provided by Gurdons earlier
research 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: Any cell, he found, could be
reverted to an early embryonic
state.
Washington Post
6. Professor Yamanaka is a professor at Kyoto University in
Kyoto, Japan. On Monday, Yamanaka credited his co-
laureate for making his advances possible. This field has a
long history starting with John Gurdon, he said in a brief
telephone interview posted on the Nobel Prize Web site.
Yamanaka noted he was born in 1962 the year Gurdon
published his pivotal frog experiments. Washington Post
7. This image shows induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells derived from
adult human dermal fibroblasts. Like embryonic cells, these cells can be
grown into many other types of tissues, but without having to destroy any
embryos. The breakthrough offered hope that someday skin cells could
be harvested from a patient, sent back in time to an embryonic state and
then grown into replacement tissues such as heart muscle or nerve cells.
A huge global research effort is now working to develop iPS cells into
treatments for heart disease, some forms of blindness, Parkinsons
disease and many other disorders. Washington Post
8. The mouse in the upper right was born from an egg
cell that was made from iPS cells at Kyoto University.
Washington Post