Shinya Yamanaka

Video of a single beating cardiomyocyte, taken from an open-access article co-authored by Yamanaka. Isolating cells by cell type is an important step in stem cell therapy.

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

He received the 2010 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the biomedicine category, the 2011 Wolf Prize in Medicine with Rudolf Jaenisch, and the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize together with Linus Torvalds.

In 2012, he and John Gurdon were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery that mature cells can be converted to stem cells.

Professional career Between 1987 and 1989, Yamanaka was a resident in orthopedic surgery at the National Osaka Hospital. Some seniors referred to him as "Jamanaka", a pun on the Japanese word for obstacle.

From 1993 to 1996, he was at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular disease. Between 1996 and 1999, he was an assistant professor at Osaka City University Medical School, but found himself mostly looking after mice in the laboratory, not doing actual research. Between 2010 and 2022, he was the director and a professor at the center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University.

In 2006, he and his team generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) from adult mouse fibroblasts.

Nobel Prize for iPS cell research The 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Yamanaka and John B. Gurdon and "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent."

The fact that differentiated cell types had specific patterns of proteins suggested irreversible epigenetic modifications or genetic alterations to be the cause of unidirectional cell differentiation. So, cells progressively become more restricted in the differentiation potential and eventually lose pluripotency.

Further research and future prospects Since the original discovery by Yamanaka, much further research has been done in this field, and many improvements have been made to the technology. Improvements made to Yamanaka's research as well as future prospects of his findings are as follows:

The delivery mechanism of pluripotency factors has been improved. At first retroviral vectors, that integrate randomly in the genome and cause deregulation of genes that contribute to tumor formation, were used. However, now, non-integrating viruses, stabilised RNAs or proteins, or episomal plasmids (integration-free delivery mechanism) are used. Transcription factors required for inducing pluripotency in different cell types have been identified (e.g. neural stem cells). Small substitutive molecules were identified, that can substitute for the function of the transcription factors. Transdifferentiation experiments were carried out. They tried to change the cell fate without proceeding through a pluripotent state. They were able to systematically identify genes that carry out transdifferentiation using combinations of transcription factors that induce cell fate switches. They found transdifferentiation within germ layer and between germ layers, e.g., exocrine cells to endocrine cells, fibroblast cells to myoblast cells, fibroblast cells to cardiomyocyte cells, fibroblast cells to neurons Cell replacement therapy with iPS cells is a possibility. Stem cells can replace diseased or lost cells in degenerative disorders and they are less prone to immune rejection. However, there is a danger that it may introduce mutations or other genomic abnormalities that render it unsuitable for cell therapy. So, there are still many challenges, but it is a very exciting and promising research area. Further work is required to guarantee safety for patients. Can medically use iPS cells from patients with genetic and other disorders to gain insights into the disease process. - Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Rett syndrome, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), α1-antitrypsin deficiency, familial hypercholesterolemia and glycogen storage disease type 1A. - For cardiovascular disease, Timothy syndrome, LEOPARD syndrome, type 1 and 2 long QT syndrome - Alzheimer's, Spinocerebellar ataxia, Huntington's etc. iPS cells provide screening platforms for development and validation of therapeutic compounds. For example, kinetin was a novel compound found in iPS cells from familial dysautonomia and beta blockers & ion channel blockers for long QT syndrome were identified with iPS cells.

Yamanaka's research has "opened a new door and the world's scientists have set forth on a long journey of exploration, hoping to find our cells' true potential."

In 2013, iPS cells were used to generate a human vascularized and functional liver in mice in Japan. Multiple stem cells were used to differentiate the component parts of the liver, which then self-organized into the complex structure. When placed into a mouse host, the liver vessels connected to the hosts vessels and performed normal liver functions, including breaking down of drugs and liver secretions.

In 2022, Yamanaka factors were shown to effect age related measures in aged mice.

Recognition In 2007, Yamanaka was recognized as a "Person Who Mattered" in the Time Person of the Year edition of Time magazine. Yamanaka was also nominated as a 2008 Time 100 Finalist. 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.

In May 2010, Yamanaka was given "Doctor of Science honorary degree" by Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

In September 2010, he was awarded the Balzan Prize for his work on biology and stem cells.

Yamanaka has been listed as one of the 15 Asian Scientists To Watch by Asian Scientist magazine on May 15, 2011. In June 2011, he was awarded the inaugural McEwen Award for Innovation; he shared the $100,000 prize with Kazutoshi Takahashi, who was the lead author on the paper describing the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells.

In June 2012, he was awarded the Millennium Technology Prize for his work in stem cells. He shared the 1.2 million euro prize with Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel. In October 2012, he and fellow stem cell researcher John Gurdon were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent."

2007 – Osaka Science Prize 2007 – Inoue Prize for Science 2007 – Asahi Prize 2007 – Meyenburg Cancer Research Award 2008 – Yamazaki-Teiichi Prize in Biological Science & Technology 2008 – Robert Koch Prize 2008 – Medals of Honor (Japan) (with purple ribbon) 2008 – Shaw Prize in Life Science & Medicine 2008 – Sankyo Takamine Memorial Award 2008 – Massry Prize from the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California 2008 - Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement 2009 – Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research 2009 – Gairdner Foundation International Award 2009 – Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research 2010 – Balzan Prize for Stem Cells: Biology and potential applications 2010 – March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology 2010 – Kyoto Prize in Biotechnology and medical technology 2010 – Person of Cultural Merit 2010 – BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Biomedicine Category 2011 – Albany Medical Center Prize in biomedicine 2011 – Wolf Prize in Medicine 2011 – King Faisal International Prize for Medicine 2011 – McEwen Award for Innovation 2012 – Millennium Technology Prize 2012 – Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences 2014 – UCSF 150th Anniversary Alumni Excellence Awards 2016 – Honorable Emeritus Professor, Hiroshima University

Interest in sports Yamanaka practiced judo (2nd Dan black belt) and played rugby as a university student. He also has a history of running marathons. After a 20-year gap, he competed in the inaugural Osaka Marathon in 2011 as a charity runner with a time of 4:29:53. He took part in Kyoto Marathon to raise money for iPS research since 2012. His personal best is 3:25:20 at 2018 Beppu-Ōita Marathon.