Dr. Shinya Yamanaka MD, PhD has won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Dr. Yamanaka, a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, is being recognized for his discovery of how to transform ordinary adult skin cells into cells that, like embryonic stem cells, can development into other cell types.

Dr. John Gurdon of the University of Cambridge was also awarded the prize for his work done nearly five decades ago.

The work of Dr. Yamanaka, who splits his time between San Francisco and Kyoto, Japan, has altered the fields of cell biology and stem cell research – dramatically influencing the future of personalized and regenerative medicines.