The 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to John
B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka
for the discovery that mature cells can be
reprogrammed to become pluripotent
SUMMARY
The Nobel Prize recognizes two scientists who discovered
that mature, specialised cells can be
reprogrammed to become immature cells capable of developing
into all tissues of the body. Their
findings have revolutionised our understanding of how cells
and organisms develop.
John B. 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.