Adult Stem Cell Discovery 2012

Great Promising Researches !!

for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent.

Announcement of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine !!

UK, Japan scientists win Nobel for adult stem cell discovery 

                                                                 October 8th, 2012
John Gurdon, 79, of the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, Britain and Shinya Yamanaka, 50, of Kyoto University in Japan, discovered ways to create tissue that would act like embryonic cells, without the need to collect the cells from embryos.

 
"My own personal belief is that we will, in the end, understand everything about how cells actually work ..."
Sir John B. Gurdon
#As far back as 1962 Gurdon became the first scientist to clone an animal, making a healthy tadpole from the egg of a frog with DNA from another tadpole's intestinal cell. That showed that developed cells carry the information to make every cell in the body - decades before other scientists made world headlines by cloning the first mammal from adult DNA, Dolly the sheep.

"My goal, all my life, is to bring this stem cell technology to the bedside, to patients, to clinics ..."
Shinya Yamanaka
# More than 40 years later, Yamanaka produced mouse stem cells from adult mouse skin cells by inserting a small number of genes. His breakthrough effectively showed that the development that takes place in adult tissue could be reversed, turning adult tissue back into cells that behave like embryos.

Front side (obverse) of the Nobel Prize Medal

 Scientists from Britain and Japan shared a Nobel Prize on Monday for the discovery that adult cells can be transformed back into embryo-like stem cells that may one day regrow tissue in damaged brains, hearts or other organs.

Shinya Yamanaka (right) and John B Gurdon (left), the winners of the 2012 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. Photograph: Agencies

Nobel prize in physiology or medicine 2012: as it happened

• John B Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka have won the 2012 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine
• Gurdon worked out that cells could be reprogrammed into a more immature state in 1962
• In 2006, Yamanaka worked out how to turn mature cells in mice into stem cells by introducing a few genes
• Yamanaka's 'induced pluripotent stem cells' removed the need to use live human embryos to create versatile stem cells
Transforming the field of "regenerative medicine":"These groundbreaking discoveries have completely changed our view of the development and specialization of cells," the Nobel Assembly at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute said.

 Now:"We would like to be able to find a way of obtaining spare heart or brain cells from skin or blood cells. The important point is that the replacement cells need to be from the same individual, to avoid problems of rejection and hence of the need for immunosuppression."

And: 1. "You can't take out a large part of the heart or the brain or so to study this, but now you can take a cell from, for example, the skin of the patient, reprogramme it, return it to a pluripotent state, and then grow it in a laboratory," he said

2. "The second thing is for further ahead. If you can grow different cell types from a cell from a human, you might - in theory for now but in future hopefully - be able to return cells where cells have been lost."

3. Thomas Perlmann, Nobel Committee member and professor of Molecular Development Biology at the Karolinska Institute said: "Thanks to these two scientists, we know now that development is not strictly a one-way street."

4. "There is lot of promise and excitement, and difficult disorders such as neurodegenerative disorders, like perhaps Alzheimer's and, more likely, Parkinson's disease, are very interesting targets."

5. Asked why he still keeps his schoolteacher's discouraging report, Gurdon said: "When you're having problems, like when an experiment doesn't work - which often happens - it's nice to remind yourself that perhaps after all you're not so good at this job and the schoolmaster may have been right."

# Gurdon spoke of his own unlikely career as a young man who loved science but was steered away from it at school, only to take it up again at university.

He still keeps an old school report in a frame on his desk: "I believe he has ideas about becoming a scientist... This is quite ridiculous," his teacher wrote. "It would be a sheer waste of time, both on his part and of those who have to teach him."

Apprehensions: 1.The science of iPS cells is still in early stages. Among concerns is the fear that implanted cells could grow out of control and develop into tumors.

Stem cells created from adult tissue are known as "induced pluripotency stem cells", or iPS cells.

2. Some scientists say stem cells from embryos may prove more useful against disease than iPS cells, and the ethics of working with embryos should be defended.

About:
Sir John B. Gurdon was born in 1933 in Dippenhall, UK. He received his Doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1960 and was a postdoctoral fellow at California Institute of Technology. He joined Cambridge University, UK, in 1972 and has served as Professor of Cell Biology and Master of Magdalene College. Gurdon is currently at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge.
Shinya Yamanaka was born in Osaka, Japan in 1962. He obtained his MD in 1987 at Kobe University and trained as an orthopaedic surgeon before switching to basic research. Yamanaka received his PhD at Osaka City University in 1993, after which he worked at the Gladstone Institute in San Francisco and Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan. Yamanaka is currently Professor at Kyoto University and also affiliated with the Gladstone Institute.

Key publications:

Gurdon, J.B. (1962). The developmental capacity of nuclei taken from intestinal epithelium cells of feeding tadpoles. Journal of Embryology and Experimental Morphology 10:622-640.

Takahashi, K., Yamanaka, S. (2006). Induction of pluripotent stem cells from mouse embryonic and adult fibroblast cultures by defined factors. Cell 126:663-676.

History of
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

 “The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: /- - -/ one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine ...” 

(Excerpt from the will of Alfred Nobel)

Alfred Nobel had an active interest in medical research. Through Karolinska Institutet he came into contact with Swedish physiologist Jöns Johansson around 1890. Johansson worked in Nobel’s laboratory in Sevran, France for a time that year. Physiology or medicine was the third prize area Nobel mentioned in his will.

In 1901, Emil von Behring was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on serum therapy, particularly for its use in the treatment of diphtheria. The Medicine Prize has subsequently highlighted a number of important discoveries including penicillin, genetic engineering and blood-typing.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

A point for the school teachers ....and do you think about whether your words might stay with children a long time? John Gurdon, still remember what teachers said about him – and what effect their words had on his life ??

#The popular idea that a child forgets easily is not an accurate one. Many people go right through life in the grip of an idea which has been impressed on them in very tender years.
Agatha Christie (1890-1976)

Nobel prizewinner Sir John Gurdon speaks at a press conference on Monday. His biology teacher described his ambitions to become a scientist as 'a sheer waste of time'.

A British researcher whose schoolboy ambition to become a scientist was dismissed as "quite ridiculous" by his Eton schoolmaster has won a Nobel prize for work that proved adult cells can be reprogramed and grown into different tissues in the body.

According to his Eton schoolmaster, the 15-year-old Gurdon did not stand out as a potential scientist. Writing in 2006, Gurdon quoted a school report as saying: "I believe Gurdon has ideas about becoming a scientist; on his present showing this is quite ridiculous; if he can't learn simple biological facts, he would have no chance of doing the work of a specialist, and it would be a sheer waste of time, both on his part and of those who would have to teach him."

That year, Gurdon scored the lowest mark for biology in his year at Eton. "Out of 250 people, to come bottom of the bottom form is quite something, and in a way the most remarkable achievement I could have been said to make," he said.

 The scientist, who was knighted in 1995, narrowly avoided military service when he caught a cold and his doctor decided it might be helpful to diagnose bronchitis. Gurdon received a message from the army assigning him to latrine cleaning and peeling potatoes, but was later told he was not needed.

Gurdon's breakthrough came in 1962 at Oxford University, when he plucked the nucleus from an adult intestine cell and placed it in a frog's egg that had had its own nucleus removed. The modified egg grew into a healthy tadpole, suggesting the mature cell had all the genetic information needed to make every cell in a frog. Previously, scientists had wondered whether different cells held different gene sets.