Shinya Yamanaka receives Kyoto prize for reprogramming skin cells

Last week, while stem cell researchers from around the world congregated in San Francisco for their annual meeting, stem cell pioneer Shinya Yamanaka won the Kyoto Prize for Advanced Technology. This award in generally considered to be a precursor to a Nobel Prize.

A press release from UCSF said:

Yamanaka received the prize for his discovery of a method of reprogramming adult skin cells to become embryonic-like stem cells. The discovery has opened up the field of stem cell research and dramatically changed the field of cell biology. He also is affiliated with and has a research lab at Kyoto University.

Yamanaka has a lab at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in San Francisco, which is affiliated with UCSF. He does not have CIRM funding, but the Institute does have shared lab space funded by CIRM for carrying out stem cell research.

A.A.