Shinya Yamanaka wins the
Nobel Prize for medicine, 2012.
For the second time in a row, first Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn in 2010, and Dr. Shinya Yamanaka in 2012, a featured speaker of the Cell Press-TNQ India Distinguished Lectureship Series wins the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Congratulations Prof. Yamanaka, from all of us at TNQ. It was a great moment when you visited us earlier this year. And it is a proud moment now.
Further reading
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012
Gurdon and Yamanaka share Nobel prize for stem cell work
British, Japanese scientists win Nobel Prize for stem cell research
Nobel prize in physiology or medicine 2012: as it happened
Nobel winners Gurdon, Yamanaka’s work changed stem cell research
Shinya Yamanaka’s Road to the 2012 Nobel Prize in Medicine
“New Era of Medicine with iPS Cells”
The Cell Press–TNQ India Distinguished Lectureship Series
Bengaluru: January 30, 2012. Chennai: February 1, 2012. New Delhi: February 3, 2012.
Links to Related News and Articles
New era of medicine in the offing, says scientist
Clinical trials using iPS cells by next year
“Wide-ranging applications for pluripotent stem cells”
Hopes rise on treating spinal injuries with iPS cells transplant
Shinya Yamanaka, the Japanese physician and celebrated adult stem cell researcher, delivered the Third Edition of The Cell Press-TNQ India Distinguished Lectureship Series in Bengaluru, Chennai, and New Delhi in January-February 2012. His Lecture is titled “New Era of Medicine with iPS Cells”. The schedule of the Lectures is given below.
Professor Yamanaka’s scientific breakthrough was the creation of embryonic-like stem cells from adult skin cells. Robert Lanza, Chief Scientific Officer of Advanced Cell Technology and Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University, has said that Yamanaka's work "is likely to be the most important stem-cell breakthrough of all time. The ability to generate an unlimited supply of patient-specific stem cells will revolutionize the future of medicine."
Professor Yamanaka divides his time between Kyoto and San Francisco. He serves as the Director of the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application and as Professor at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences at Kyoto University. He is also a Senior Investigator at the UCSF-affiliated J. David Gladstone Institutes and a Professor of Anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
Shinya Yamanaka’s career in science has been a distinguished one. He was awarded the Albert Lasker Prize in 2009 and The Wolf Prize in 2011. These cap a long list of awards that are detailed below.
More about Professor Yamanaka’s Research
The stated goal of Professor Yamanaka’s laboratory has been to generate pluripotent stem cells from human somatic cells.
The ability to "reprogram" adult cells back into an earlier, undifferentiated state has helped to reshape the ethical debate over stem-cell research by providing an approach for obtaining pluripotent stem cells that does not require that they be taken from an embryo.
Earlier observations that somatic cells could be reprogrammed either by nuclear transfer into oocytes or by fusion with embryonic stem (ES) cells suggested that oocytes and ES cells contain factors that induce reprogramming. By identifying these factors, Yamanaka reasoned that it should be possible to induce pluripotency in somatic cells without using embryos or oocytes.
The significance of this is that ES cells, derived from the inner cell mass of mammalian blastocysts, can grow indefinitely while maintaining pluripotency. These properties have led to expectations that ES cells might be useful to treat a host of degenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Diabetes, as well as injuries including spinal cord injury. However, clinical application of human ES cells raises issues about the ethical use of human embryos and problems with tissue rejection after implantation. By generating pluripotent cells directly from somatic cells, it may be possible to circumvent these issues. Once established, these cells may be used in regenerative medicine and also to elucidate disease mechanisms and to screen drugs.
Awards
- 2007 Osaka Science Prize
- 2007 Inoue Prize for Science
- 2007 Asahi Prize
- 2007 Meyenburg Cancer Research Award
- 2008 Yamazaki-Teiichi Prize in Biological Science & Technology
- 2008 Robert Koch Prize
- 2008 Medals of Honor (Japan) (Medal with Purple Ribbon)
- 2008 Shaw Prize in Life Science & Medicine
- 2008 Sankyo Takamine Memorial Award
- 2009 Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research
- 2009 Gairdner Foundation International Award
- 2009 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
- 2010 March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology
- 2010 Kyoto Prize in Biotechnology and Medical Technology
- 2010 Balzan Prize in Biology
- 2010 Person of Cultural Merit
- 2010 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Biomedicine Category
- 2011 Albany Medical Center Prize in Biomedicine
- 2011 Wolf Prize in Medicine
- 2011 King Faisal International Prize
Lecture Schedule
Bengaluru: Monday, January 30, 2012, 4.30 p.m., JN Tata Auditorium, National Science Seminar Complex, Indian Institute of Science, C.V. Raman Road.
Chennai: Wednesday, February 1, 2012, 6.00 p.m., Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall, (Lady Andal School Premises), Harrington Road, Chetpet.
New Delhi: Friday, February 3, 2012, 4.30 p.m., Teen Murti Auditorium, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen Murti House, New Delhi.
The Cell Press-TNQ India Distinguished Lectureship Series
The Cell Press-TNQ India Distinguished Lectureship Series is co-sponsored by Cell Press and TNQ Books and Journals.
Planned as an annual event, these Lectures are held in three cities each year and are aimed at bringing internationally renowned scientists face to face with the Indian scientific community.
The Inaugural Speaker of the Lecture Series was David Baltimore, the American biologist who is currently the Robert A. Millikan Professor of Biology at Caltech. In 1975, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Howard Temin and Renato Dulbecco.
The Second Speaker was Elizabeth Blackburn, the Australian-born, American biological researcher at the University of California, San Francisco. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2009, sharing it with Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak.
About Cell Press
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based, Elsevier imprint for biological research and reviews, Cell Press publishes 29 highly cited journals including its flagship journal, Cell, Neuron, Immunity, Developmental Cell, Structure, Current Biology, Cancer Cell, Molecular Cell, Chemistry & Biology, Cell Metabolism, Cell Host & Microbe and Cell Stem Cell, the new open access journal, Cell Reports, 14 Trends review titles and two society journals, the monthly journal of the American Society of Human Genetics and the Biophysical Journal.
Launched in 1974, Cell Press has been at the forefront of ground-breaking developments in biology. It is recognized for its close relationship with the scientific community and for consistently delivering the world’s leading research across the broad spectrum of the life sciences. Its mission is to continue to publish and develop journals that are widely disseminated, deliver the highest possible intellectual rigour, and promote community trust.
About TNQ Books and Journals
Chennai-based TNQ Books and Journals delivers quality and technology focussed pre-publishing services including content enhancement, design, illustration, and software development solutions to leading publishers of scientific, technological, and medical (STM) books and journals. Having begun operations in 1998, TNQ has emerged the preferred supplier to its client publishers in the US, UK, EU, and Australia. Today, TNQ has over 1700 employees, almost all with a strong educational background in science. Its mission is to provide the highest quality content both for print and the web, using cutting edge technologies and creative solutions.
TNQ is an equal opportunity employer and is blind to gender, religion, caste, and ethnicity. The Company has a firm commitment to employee and community welfare and to the world of Indian science and its development.
Further reading on Professor Shinya Yamanaka
http://www.gladstone.ucsf.edu/gladstone/site/yamanaka/
http://www.icems.kyoto-u.ac.jp/e/ppl/grp/yamanaka.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinya_Yamanaka
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204683204574358170813148330.html
