More than a decade ago, Shinya Yamanaka gazed through a microscope at human embryos growing in a laboratory dish at a fertility clinic in Osaka, Japan. The pulsating blobs struck a primitive chord in the young researcher. “Watching the embryos, I felt that if there was a way to find cures for human diseases without destroying them, then that's what I should pursue,” recalls Yamanaka, a stem cell biologist at Japan's Kyoto University and a newly elected foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences. That close encounter with a kernel of human life led to a scientific exploration with a societal undertow. Years later, Yamanaka discovered a genetic recipe that allows researchers to bypass the use of human embryos to create a range of cell types implicated in diseases. His magic ingredients? A quartet of gene switches that could help turn adult human cells into an embryo-like state, leading to disease models, drug tests, and, someday, even replacements for diseased human tissues. Today, Yamanaka's accomplishment is acclaimed as nearly unmatched in its impact on regenerative medicine.
Shinya Yamanaka.
Dopaminergic neurons derived from human iPS cells.
In Osaka, a bustling commercial hub and home to electronics giants like Panasonic and Sanyo, Yamanaka was born to parents who manufactured spare parts for sewing machines. When he was 10 his family moved east to Nara, where iconic temples bear witness to a Buddhist landscape. From an early age, Yamanaka's father motivated him to pursue a career in medicine instead of enlisting him in the family enterprise. Add to his father's influence a childhood spent recovering from sports injuries, and Yamanaka's choice of a career in orthopedic surgery seemed cast in stone. “I suffered from bone fractures more than 10 times from playing judo in school. I went to orthopedic clinics so often, …
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