British, Japanese Researchers Win Nobel Prize In Medicine

VPM | By Catherine Laidlaw

Published October 8, 2012 at 10:42 AM EDT

Updated January 12, 2024

John B. Gurdon (left) and Shinya Yamanaka will share the prize, worth about $1.2 million.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded this morning to a British and a Japanese researcher who discovered that mature and specialized cells “can be reprogrammed to become immature cells capable of developing into all tissues of the body,” according to the Nobel committee.

This year’s honorees are John B. Gurdon of the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, England, and Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University in Japan. They will share the prize, worth about $1.2 million.

The Nobel committee writes:

“These groundbreaking discoveries have completely changed our view of the development and cellular specialisation. We now understand that the mature cell does not have to be confined forever to its specialised state. Textbooks have been rewritten and new research fields have been established. By reprogramming human cells, scientists have created new opportunities to study diseases and develop methods for diagnosis and therapy.”

As NPR’s Rob Stein reports, the hope is that eventually these reprogrammable cells — known as induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells — will lead to new treatments for many diseases. Because they are created from adult cells and not cells from embryos, he says, they sidestep all the moral and ethical concerns associated with cells obtained from embryos.

Our colleagues over at the Shots blog will have more coverage of the award later this morning.

Here’s the schedule for the other Nobel Prize announcements:

Tuesday: Physics

Wednesday: Chemistry

Thursday: Literature

Friday: Peace

Oct. 15: Economics

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Catherine Laidlaw

Catherine Laidlaw is the deputy chief of NPR's National Desk. Based in Washington, D.C., she oversees the desk's daily and long-term news-gathering operations for audio and digital platforms, working with journalists in bureaus across the U.S. The desk also works closely with hundreds of journalists across NPR's nationwide network of Member stations.

Laidlaw has been the lead editor on topics including abortion, housing, criminal justice and immigration. Her work has been recognized with a Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award, a Peabody Award, an Edward R. Murrow Award, a National Headliner Award, a Gracie Award and as a finalist by the Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma.

Before moving into her current role, Laidlaw served as a Supervising Editor at Morning Edition and as acting Director of NPR.org, where she oversaw NPR's digital coverage of the coronavirus pandemic and the repercussions of racial injustice.

Prior to NPR, she was an editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune, the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle as well as a managing editor at The Industry Standard.

She graduated from the University of Missouri's School of Journalism.

See stories by Catherine Laidlaw