Shinya Yamanaka (b. 1962)

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Biography

Shinya Yamanaka is a Japanese stem cell researcher and a Nobel Prize laureate. He is a professor and the director emeritus of Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University; as well as a senior investigator at the UCSF-affiliated Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, California and a professor of anatomy at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Yamanaka is also a past president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR).

Timeline

The story of Shinya Yamanaka, told in moments.

1987 Life

Earned his MD from Kobe University and began a residency in orthopedic surgery. His first operation was to remove a tumor from a friend. He was so slow in the OR that colleagues called him "Jamanaka," a pun meaning obstacle.

Did being called 'Jamanaka' in the OR motivate you to change fields? Was your friend's tumor operation a turning point? How did a slow surgeon become a groundbreaking scientist?

2006 Event

Published the discovery that adult mouse skin cells could be reprogrammed into stem cells using just four genes. Called them induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells. The finding upended the entire field of regenerative medicine.

What was it like discovering that adult cells could become stem cells? Did you know immediately that iPS cells would upend regenerative medicine? Were those four genes hiding in plain sight?

2012 Event

Shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with John Gurdon. He was 50. The prize recognized that mature cells can be converted back to stem cells, opening doors for disease modeling and drug testing without embryo destruction.

Does sharing the Nobel with John Gurdon feel right? What does the prize at 50 mean for the work ahead? Is avoiding embryo destruction part of what drives you?

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