Science Librarians Analysis of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Medicine: The Work of Sir John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka

Abstract

The Nobel Committee awarded the 2012 Physiology or Medicine Prize jointly to Sir John B. Gurdon, D.Phil., D.Sc. F.R.S., University of Cambridge, Great Britain, and Shinya Yamanaka, M.D., Ph.D., Kyoto University, Japan, and the Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, for landmark cell biology, stem cell discoveries that “mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent” (Nobelprize.org 2012). According to the Nobel Assembly at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute: “These groundbreaking revelations have completely changed our view of cell development and specialization of cells” (Nobelprize.org 2012). This article provides an overview of their work.

Keywords:

• Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology 2012
• John B. Gurdon
• Shinya Yamanaka
• stem cells