Tuesday – 1/8/13

Quote of the Week   —   Posted on January 8, 2013

“I thought, we can’t keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way.”

Dr. Shinya Yamanaka

Japanese physician and researcher of adult stem cells Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan. Yamanaka is also the current president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR).  In October 2012, Yamanaka and fellow stem cell researcher John Gurdon were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent [stem cells].”

Induced pluripotent stem cells, [iPSCs] are a type of pluripotent stem cell artificially derived from a non-pluripotent cell – typically an adult somatic cell – by inducing a “forced” expression of specific genes.  iPSCs are an important advance in stem cell research, as they may allow researchers to obtain pluripotent stem cells, which are important in research and potentially have therapeutic uses, without the controversial use of embryos.

For a more detailed explanation, go to: ucsf.edu/news/2012/10/12912/stem-cell-science-q