Shinya Yamanaka
Born	(1962-09-04) September 4, 1962 (age 49) Higashiōsaka, Osaka, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Fields	stem cell research[1][2][3]
Institutions	Kyoto University, Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease
Alma mater	Kobe University Osaka City University Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease
Known for	Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell
Notable awards	Robert Koch Prize (2008) Shaw Prize (2008) Gairdner Foundation International Award (2009) Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (2009) BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2010) Wolf Prize (2011) Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences[4] (2012)

Shinya Yamanaka (山中 伸弥, Yamanaka Shin'ya^?, born September 4, 1962 in Higashiōsaka) is a Japanese physician and adult stem cell researcher.^[1][2][3] He serves as the director of Center for iPS Cell Research and Application and a professor at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences at Kyoto University, as a senior investigator at the UCSF-affiliated J. David Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, California, and as a professor of anatomy at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He was recently awarded the Wolf Prize in Medicine. Yamanaka has been listed as one of the 15 Asian Scientists To Watch by Asian Scientist Magazine on 15 May 2011.^[5][6]

Biography[link]

He received his M.D. at Kobe University in 1987 and his Ph.D. at Osaka City University Graduate School in 1993. After this he went through a residency in orthopedic surgery at National Osaka Hospital and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, San Francisco.

Professional career[link]

From 1987-1989, Yamanaka was a Resident in orthopedic surgery at the National Osaka Hospital. From 1993-1995, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, which is affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco. From 1995-1996, he was a staff research investigator at the UCSF-affililated Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease. From 1996-1999, he was an assistant professor at Osaka City University Medical School. From 1999-2003, he was an associate professor at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology. From 2003-2005, he was a professor at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology. From 2004–2010, Shinya Yamanaka was a professor at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences.^[7] Currently Yamanaka is the director and a professor at the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application in Kyoto university, Japan.

In 2006, he and his team generated Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells - pluripotent stem cells from adult mouse fibroblasts. In 2007, he and his team were able to generate Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from human adult fibroblasts. ^[1][2][3]

Recognitions[link]

In 2007, Shinya Yamanaka was recognized as a "Person Who Mattered" in the Time Person of the Year edition of Time Magazine.^[8] Shinya Yamanaka was also nominated as a 2008 Time 100 Finalist.^[9] In June 2010, Yamanaka was awarded the Kyoto Prize for reprogramming adult skin cells to pluripotential precursors. Yamanaka developed the method as an alternative to embryonic stem cells, thus circumventing an approach in which embryos would be destroyed.^[10] In September 2010 he was awarded the Balzan Prize for his work on biology and stem cells.^[11]

Awards[link]

• 2007 Osaka Science Prize
• 2007 Inoue Prize for Science
• 2007 Asahi Prize
• 2007 Meyenburg Cancer Research Award ^[12][13]
• 2008 Yamazaki-Teiichi Prize in Biological Science & Technology
• 2008 Robert Koch Prize
• 2008 Medals of Honor (Japan) (Medal with Purple Ribbon)
• 2008 Shaw Prize in Life Science & Medicine^[14][15][16]
• 2008 Sankyo Takamine Memorial Award^[17]
• 2009 Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research^[18]
• 2009 Gairdner Foundation International Award^[19]
• 2009 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
• 2010 March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology
• 2010 Kyoto Prize in Biotechnology and medical technology
• 2010 Balzan Prize in biology
• 2010 Person of Cultural Merit
• 2010 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Biomedicine Category^[20]
• 2011 Albany Medical Center Prize in biomedicine
• 2011 Wolf Prize in medicine
• 2011 King Faisal International Prize
• 2012 Millennium Technology Prize
• 2012 Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences^[4]

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Shinya Yamanaka Lab, CiRA, Kyoto University
• Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University
• Shinya Yamanaka on Charlie Rose
• Fackler, Martin (2007-12-11). "Risk Taking Is in His Genes". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/science/11prof.html?pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2007-12-11. 
• The Discovery and Future of Induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS)

Sir Ian Wilmut, OBE FRS FMedSci FRSE^[3] (born 7 July 1944) is an English embryologist and is currently Director of the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh^[4]. He is best known as the leader of the research group that in 1996 first cloned a mammal from an adult somatic cell, a Finnish Dorset lamb named Dolly.^[5][6][7][8] He was granted an OBE in 1999 for services to embryo development.^[9] In December 2007 it was announced that he would be knighted in the 2008 New Year Honours.^[10]

Early life and career[link]

Wilmut was born in Hampton Lucy, Warwickshire, England.^[11] Wilmut's father, Leonard Wilmut, was a mathematics teacher who suffered from diabetes for fifty years eventually causing blindness.^[12] He was a student of the former Boys' High School, in Scarborough, where his father taught.^[13] Wilmut's early desire was to embark on a naval career, but he was unable to do so due to his colour blindness.^[14] As a school boy, Wilmut worked as a farm hand on weekends, which inspired him to study Agriculture at the University of Nottingham.^[13][15]

In 1966 Wilmut spent 8 weeks working in the laboratory of Christopher Polge, who is credited with developing the technique of cryopreservation in 1949.^[16] The following year, Wilmut joined Polge's laboratory to undertake a research PhD, from which he graduated in 1971. Wilmut has since been involved in research focusing on gametes and embryogenesis including working at the Roslin Institute.^[13] In 1998 he received the Lord Lloyd of Kilgerran Award.

Wilmut was the leader of the research group that in 1996 first cloned a mammal, a lamb named Dolly.^[7][8] Dolly died of a respiratory disease in 2003. However, in 2008 Wilmut announced that he is to abandon the technique of somatic cell nuclear transfer^[17] by which Dolly was created in favour of an alternative technique developed by Shinya Yamanaka. This method has been used in mice to derive pluripotent stem cells from differentiated adult skin cells, thus circumventing the need to generate embryonic stem cells. Wilmut believes that this method holds greater potential for the treatment of degenerative conditions such as Parkinson's disease and to treat stroke and heart attack patients.^[18]

Wilmut has been accused of accepting disproportionate credit for his contribution to the development of Dolly. Former employees of the Roslin Institute claim that Wilmut is “self-confessed charlatan” who “apparently lacks adequate scientific understanding”.^[19] These employees, who were not directly involved in the creation of Dolly, have signed a petition for the Queen to withdraw Wilmut's knighthood.^[20] Indeed, Wilmut admits to having played only a supervisory role in the creation of Dolly, crediting his colleague Keith Campbell with "66 per cent" of the work.^[21] This supervisory role however is consistent with the post of principal investigator held by Wilmut at the time of Dolly's creation.

Wilmut currently holds the post of Chair of Reproductive Biology at the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Edinburgh and in 2008 was knighted in the New Year Honours for "services to science".^[14]

References[link]

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