Sir John Gurdon
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012 was awarded jointly to Sir John B. Gurdon in
UK and Dr. Shinya Yamanaka.
For our Japanse, it is a very gratifying incident that a Japanese scientist receives
the Nobel Prize.
Dr. Yamanaka is the same age as me, 50 years old now.
Of couse I can't even begin to compare myself to him, but I am delighted to hear that
a person of the same age has accomplished a great achievement.
By chance in 1962 when Dr. Yamanaka and I were born, Dr. Gurdon discovered that
a cell removed from the gut of a frog contained all the genetic information necessary
to create the whole frog. This discovery is conducive to get the Nobel Prize.
Dr. Gurdon is 79 years old now, but still continue to research at
the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge.
The second Japanese to win a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
since Dr. Susumu Tonegawa, but there are 29 winners in United Kingdom.
I hope another young Japanese researcher will win the Nobel Prize in Dr. Yamanaka's train.