Shinya Yamanaka, and John B. Gurdon- were awarded the Nobel Prize

Two scientists- Shinya Yamanaka, and John B. Gurdon- were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for conducting research, and laying down the foundation for regenerative medicine. The general idea is to rebuild tissues in our bodies built from its own cells. Adult cells are assigned to a specific function, and cannot assume any new ones but while they were originally stem cells, they had the ability to turn into any type of cell. In 1962, Dr. Gurdon made a break through when he extracted the nucleus of a frog cell from a mature intestinal cell that had already been “assigned” a function. He inserted the nucleus containing the frog intestinal cell DNA into a frog egg that had had it’s own nucleus removed. The modified egg cell showed signs that the egg was able to reprogram itself and assume the duties of a young intestinal cell, although he had no idea how. 44 years later, Dr. Yamanaka discovered in 2006 that just four genes could achieve reprogramming of a cell. He used this technique to turn back time, changing a mature cell back into its original stem cell form. They were called induced pluripotent stem cells. From there, they could be made to assume any other type of cell with a specific task or tissue in mind.

This research is important in the field of medicine as certain parts of our body contain cells that cannot undergo mitosis once maturing, or only can undergo mitosis few times. One example is patients with conditions such as Alzheimer’s. They cannot regenerate parts of their brain necessary to function properly.  Scientists hope that with the discovery of these iPS cells, we will be able to use them in therapy, and provide patients with stem cells to develop into certain cells they may need. In the case of a patient with Alzheimer’s, it would be brain cells. This sounds particularly interesting to me because it offers a solution to so many diseases we once couldn’t treat properly because we couldn’t do anything about the core problem. Now, with proper research, the possibilities could be endless. We might even be able to grow entire organs for people who need an organ transplant, and even make it specialized to a specific patient who has particular needs, such as a rare blood type.

I liked the article for its short summation of the achievements of the two scientists. However, I wish it went a little more in depth as it also included a lot of backstory, which I felt didn’t have anything to do with the discoveries that the article was supposed to be discussing. The portion where they were explaining the experiment with frog cells confused me for a bit, although I was eventually able to figure me out. It was of reasonable length although for more visual learners, a video and several pictures would have helped a bit more.

Wade, Nicholas. "Cloning and Stem Cell Work Earns Nobel." NYTimes. N.p., 8 Oct. 2012. Web.