Category Archives: Cell Medicine

The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was announced on Monday. The award this year went to Sir John B. Gurdon and Dr. Shinya Yamanaka. The two men were awarded the Nobel Prize jointly, for their individual work in cloning and stem cell research. Monday's recognition marked the awarding of the first Nobel Prize for 2012. The rest of the Nobel Prize recipients will be announced throughout the next two weeks. Here is some of the key information regarding Gurdon and Yamanaka's work and Monday's Nobel Prize announcement. * Yamanaka and Gurdon did not work together or present shared research, even though they both concentrate their studies on a similar area of research. * Gurdon is actually being honored for work he did back in 1962. According to a New York Times report, he was the first person to clone an animal, a frog, opening the door to further research into stem cells and cloning. * Gurdon was able to produce live tadpoles from the adult cells of a frog, by removing the nucleus of a frog's egg and putting the adult cells in its place. * This "reprogramming" by Gurdon laid the groundwork for Yamanaka's work four decades later. … Continue reading →

Kyodo / Reuters Kyoto University Professor Shinya Yamanaka (left) and John Gurdon of the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, England, at a symposium on induced pluripotent stem cells in Tokyo in April 2008 In a testament to the revolutionary potential of the field of regenerative medicine, in which scientists are able to create and replace any cells that are at fault in disease, the Nobel Prize committee on Monday awarded the 2012 Nobel in Physiology or Medicine to two researchers whose discoveries have made such cellular alchemy possible. The prize went to John B. Gurdon of the University of Cambridge in England, who was among the first to clone an animal, a frog, in 1962, and to Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan who in 2006 discovered the four genes necessary to reprogram an adult cell back to an embryonic state. Sir John Gurdon, who is now a professor at an institute that bears his name, earned the ridicule of many colleagues back in the 1960s when he set out on a series of experiments to show that the development of cells could be reversed. At the time, biologists knew that all cells in an embryo had the potential to … Continue reading →

JUDY WOODRUFF: Next, to the 2012 Nobel Prizes. The first was awarded today for groundbreaking work in reprogramming cells in the body. Ray Suarez looks at those achievements. MAN: The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute has today decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine,2012 jointly to John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka. RAY SUAREZ: The two scientists are from two different generations and celebrated today's announcement half-a-world apart. But today they were celebrated together for their research that led to a groundbreaking understanding of how cells work. Sir John Gurdon of CambridgeUniversity was awarded for his work in 1962. He was able to use specialized cells of frogs, like skin or intestinal cells, to generate new tadpoles and show DNA could drive the formation of all cells in the body. Forty years later, Dr. Yamanaka built on that and went further. He was able to turn mature cells back into their earliest form as primitive cells. Those cells are in many ways the equivalent of embryonic stem cells, because they have the potential to develop into specialized cells for heart, liver and other organs. Dr. Shinya Yamanaka is currently working at KyotoUniversity. Embryonic stem cells have had … Continue reading →

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regulatory News: Cellectis (ALCLS.PA) (ALCLS.PA), the French genome engineering specialist, considers the award of the Nobel Prize fin Medicine to Professor Shinya Yamanaka as the validation of its stem cell strategy and is a major growth driver for this activity. Since 2010 Cellectis started collaborating with Professor Shinya Yamanaka at the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at Kyoto, Japan, working together on genome engineering of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Since then, Cellectis has successively: Cellectis already sells cellular models for research and drug development within pharmaceutical industry, implementing technologies developed by CiRA. In addition, Cellectis is currently working on a number of develops large-scale projects based on iPS cell technology with two aims: Andr Choulika, CEO of Cellectis, declares: "the quality of relations between the teams of CiRA and Cellectis Group - based on mutual respect of their scientific expertise on the one hand, the recognition of the strong complementarity of their knowledge on the other - involved the establishment of a real alliance able to compete with the American presence in the area." Cellectis plans to expand and deepen this collaboration with Prof. Yamanaka in order to strengthen its position as an industry … Continue reading →

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regulatory News: Cellectis (ALCLS.PA) (ALCLS.PA), the French genome engineering specialist, considers the award of the Nobel Prize fin Medicine to Professor Shinya Yamanaka as the validation of its stem cell strategy and is a major growth driver for this activity. Since 2010 Cellectis started collaborating with Professor Shinya Yamanaka at the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at Kyoto, Japan, working together on genome engineering of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Since then, Cellectis has successively: Cellectis already sells cellular models for research and drug development within pharmaceutical industry, implementing technologies developed by CiRA. In addition, Cellectis is currently working on a number of develops large-scale projects based on iPS cell technology with two aims: Andr Choulika, CEO of Cellectis, declares: "the quality of relations between the teams of CiRA and Cellectis Group - based on mutual respect of their scientific expertise on the one hand, the recognition of the strong complementarity of their knowledge on the other - involved the establishment of a real alliance able to compete with the American presence in the area." Cellectis plans to expand and deepen this collaboration with Prof. Yamanaka in order to strengthen its position as an industry … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

The Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for 2012 was awarded jointly to British scientist John B. Gurdon and Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka for their work in stem cell research, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm announced Monday. The announcement opens the prestigious award season for this year while the speculation over literature and peace prizes is rife. "These groundbreaking discoveries have completely changed our view of the development and specialization of cells," the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute said in a statement on its website. We now understand that the mature cell does not have to be confined forever to its specialized state. Textbooks have been rewritten and new research fields have been established. By reprogramming human cells, scientists have created new opportunities to study diseases and develop methods for diagnosis and therapy," the statement said. Gurdon discovered in 1962 that the specialization of cells is reversible. Yamanaka discovered more than 40 years later in 2006 how the intact mature cells in mice could be reprogrammed to become immature stem cells. These groundbreaking discoveries have completely changed our view of the development and cellular specialization, the institute has said. Gurdon was born in 1933 in Dippenhall, the U.K, and … Continue reading →

British researcher John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka from Japan have shared the Nobel prize for medicine or physiology. The two pioneers of stem cell research were awarded the prize for transforming specialised cells into stem cells, which can become any other type of cell in the body. John 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. These groundbreaking discoveries have completely changed our view of the development and cellular specialisation. By reprogramming human cells, scientists have created new opportunities to study diseases and develop methods for diagnosis … Continue reading →

The 2012 Nobel Prize for medicine has been awarded to stem cell researchers John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka of Britain and Japan. They take the first Nobel prize of the year, with a flurry to follow over the next week. Judges in Stockholm said on Monday that the medicine prize had been awarded to the researchers "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent," saying that this discovery had "revolutionized our understanding of how cells and organisms develop." Gurdon and Yamanaka are stem cell researchers who are seeking ways to obtain embryonic stem cells - a kind of genetic blank slate, cells that can be 'programmed' to take on many different forms and perform different functions - from the cells of an adult. Embryos themselves are another more controversial source of stem cells. "We are trying to find ways of obtaining embryo cells from the cells of an adult," Gurdon writes on his Gurdon Institute website. "The eventual aim is to provide replacement cells of all kinds starting from usually obtainable cells of an adult individual." The British scientist also said such a system was advantageous because the stem cells could be obtained from the patient … Continue reading →

Two scientists who discovered the developmental clock could be turned back in mature cells, transforming them into immature cells with the ability to become any tissue in the body pluripotent stem cells are being honored with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The Nobel Prize honoring Sir John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka was announced today (Oct. 8) by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Th duo's work revealed what scientists had thought impossible. Just after conception, an embryo contains immature cells that can give rise to any cell type such as nerve, muscle and liver cells in the adult organism; these are called pluripotent stem cells, and scientists believed once these stem cells become specialized to carry out a specific body task there was no turning back. Gurdon, now at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, England, found this wasn't the case when in 1962 he replaced the nucleus of a frog's egg cell with the nucleus taken from a mature intestinal cell from a tadpole. And voila, the altered frog egg developed into a tadpole, suggesting the mature nucleus held the instructions needed to become all cells in the frog, as if it were a young unspecialized cell. … Continue reading →