British and Japanese Researchers Awarded The 2012 Nobel Prize For Stem Cell Research

Nobel Prize Commemorative Coin. Image Credit: Wikipedia (public domain)

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Stem cell research has been a controversial, yet important advance in science and medicine for decades. Scientific research has been carried out in numerous areas pertaining to stem cells, and the work of two such researchers in the field have caught the eye of the most prestigious awards organization in the world.

Britains Sir John Gurdon and Japans Shinya Yamanaka were both awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Medicine thanks to their tireless research in nuclear programming, a process that instructs adult cells to form early stem cells which can then be used to form any tissue type.

Gurdon, whose work included taking intestinal samples to clone frogs, and Yamanaka, whose work altered genes to reprogram cells, were awarded the prize by a committee at Stockholms Karolinska Institute on Monday. The committee said the discoveries made by both men have revolutionized our understanding of how cells and organisms develop.

Sir John Gurdons work is from 1962. In his research, he showed that the genetic information inside a cell gleaned from the intestines of a frog contained all the information needed to create a whole new frog. He took the genetic information and placed it inside a frog egg, which then developed into a normal tadpole. Gurdons technique would eventually pave the way for later researchers to clone a sheep named Dolly, the first ever cloned mammal.

Fast forward forty years, Shinya Yamanaka took on a different approach. Rather than transferring genetic data into an egg, he reset it.

Yamanaka added four genes to adult skin cells of mice which transformed them into stem cells, which in turn became specialized cells, or induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. He also announced, in 2007, that he had done the same with human skin cells.

These embryonic iPS cells can develop into any type of cell and, because of this, hold tremendous promise for regenerative medicine, in which damaged organs and tissues can be replaced or repaired.

Use of stem cells are, in the eyes of many in the scientific community, the key to the future of disease eradication. However, the issue has also been controversial, with many opponents of stem cell research crying foul, accusing scientists of playing God.

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British and Japanese Researchers Awarded The 2012 Nobel Prize For Stem Cell Research