October 8, 2012
Today, two scientists, John Gurdon (79) and Shinya Yamanaka (50) from Britain and Japan were awarded a Nobel Prize. It is for "the discovery that adult cells can be transformed back into embryo-like stem cells that may one day regrow tissue in damaged brains, hearts or other organs." Gurdon began work on this matter 50 years ago at the age of 29 and just continued to work on it for all of these years.
This is a big deal because all of the body's cells start as stem cells. With this new research, they hope that they can be used to replace damaged tissue from spinal cord injuries and even Parkinson's disease. Gurdon also says, "We would like to be able to find a way of obtaining spare heart or brain cells from skin or blood cells. The important point is that the replacement cells need to be from the same individual, to avoid problems of rejection and hence of the need for immunosuppression."
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/08/14293193-nobel-prize-awarded-for-stem-cell-breakthroughs?lite
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