REGENERATION SCIENCE
2012 Nobel Prize: Scientists John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka assigned to the results of stem cell research .
NEW YORK -
Two scientists of different generations have received the Nobel Prize for Medicine for Revolutionary Discovery that body cells can be reprogrammed in completely different genres, scientific works that reflect the underlying mechanism of cloning and can offer an alternative to use of embryonic stem cells.
The work of the British researcher John Gurdon and the Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka - who was born in the year when Gurdon made his discovery - support the hope for the treatment of diseases such as Parkinson's and Diabetes by means of 'tailor made' tissue culture for transplantation. The results have also stimulated a new generation of laboratory studies in other diseases, including Schizophrenia.
In essence, Gurdon, 83, and Yamanaka, 54, have shown how to produce cells equivalent to embryonic stem cells by overcoming the ethical issues that these latest cells, so versatile they pose, a promise to be fulfilled that scientists are now reworking. Once created, these "tabula rasa" cells can be 'switchate' progressively towards development in other types of cells. Skin cells e.g. they can be transformed into brain cells. Just last week, scientists reported skin cells of mice transformed into related oocytes, produced newborn mice, representing a possible step toward new fertility treatments.
Gurdon and Yamanaka realized "brave experiments" that challenged the opinion of the scientific community, said Doug Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. "Their work has shown ... that although cells can be specialized to do something, they have the potential to do something different," said Melton. And this "really provides the basis for all the emotions for stem cell biology." Another Harvard stem cell researcher, Dr. George Daley said, "I do not think anyone is surprised" by the announcement of the Award, " The fact that these two scientists share the Award together is truly inspirational !
"In announcing the $ 1.2 million prize, the Nobel Committee at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm said the work has" revolutionized our understanding of how cells and organisms develop. "Gurdon demonstrated in 1962 that DNA from specialized tadpole cells, such as skin or intestinal cells, could be used to clone more tadpoles.In 1997, the same process led to the cloning of the Dolly sheep, showing how it would be possible working also in mammals, Gurdon told journalists in London that at the time of his discovery, she had no clear therapeutic benefit at all.
It took almost 50 years before the potential value of its basic scientific research came to light. "Forty-four years after the discovery of Gurdon in 2006, Yamanaka and his team went beyond the tadpoles, and they demonstrated with a surprisingly simple method that they can transform skin cells of a mouse back into primitive cells, which in turn, they can be directed to different types of mature cells.These experiences have been subsequently repeated with human cells.In theory these primitive cells are "tabula rasa" - like embryonic stem cells -, which can be transformed into any cell of the body To transform a skin cell into a stem cell takes weeks in the laboratory, scientists have succeeded in introducing two to four genes that transform the cell's own genes that are "silenced".
It's a bit like restarting a computer, the change causes the cell to pursue a new selection of genes that transform it from a dermal cell to a stem cell using another gene set. Gurdon, who told of his ambitions to become a scientist who were snubbed as "totally ridiculous" by his school principal, when he was still a teenager. Yet, after his studies, several years later, he obtained the position of Professor of Cell Biology at the University of Cambridge Magdalene College. He is currently at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, founded by himself.
Yamanaka worked at the Gladstone Institute of San Francisco and Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan. He is currently at Kyoto University and is attached to the Gladstone Institute. Yamanaka is the first Japanese scientist to win the Nobel Prize in Medicine since 1987.
When asked how he was going to celebrate, Gurdon said he was invited to the late-afternoon cocktail at 6pm. "I absolutely intend to participate in the toast," he said firmly. He told of his skepticism, on the occasion of the congratulatory call received from Stockholm, explaining that "the call came from someone in Sweden, and his immediate reaction was:` Is it true or is someone making fun of me? Yamanaka said he was honored to share the award with Gurdon "because without his work, which he published 50 years ago - in the year of his birth - and his researches, I would never have done this and we would have never studied on this project. "Yamanaka interviewed, said he did not yet know what he was going to celebrate. "I just need some beer," he said, speaking in videoconference from Japan to thank his colleagues in San Francisco for their support. The choice of Yamanaka as a Nobel winner, just six years after his discovery is unusual.
The Nobel Committees in general, reward research done more than a decade before, to ensure that this has stood the test of time. However, in 2010, the Nobel Prize in physics went to two researchers whose findings were also published six years earlier. In 2006, the two American scientists won the medicine award eight years after their work was published. A member of the Nobel Prize committee, Juleen Zierath said that the findings of Gurdon and Yamanaka, which also brought them a Lasker prize for basic research in 2009, competes "immense potential", including several treatments in of development for Parkinson's disease and diabetes, as cells that produce insulin can be obtained. However, he added that the therapeutic implications are still far away.