Britain’s Gurdon, Japan’s Yamanaka share Nobel medicine prize for stem cell research
British researcher John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka of Japan won this year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine on Monday for discovering that mature, specialized cells of the body can be reprogrammed into stem cells — a discovery that scientists hope to turn into new treatments.
Scientists want to harness that reprogramming to create replacement tissues for treating diseases like Parkinson’s, diabetes and for studying the roots of diseases in the laboratory.
The prize committee at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute said the discovery has “revolutionized our understanding of how cells and organisms develop.”
I hope wingnut heads are asploding over their morning beverages.
And shame on George W. Bush and all the Republicans at national and state levels who went along with his interference in basic research.
My friend Blue Lotus has excellent tweets this morning - She is a scientist in Australia.