Shin’ya Yamanaka

Shin'ya Yamanaka (Japanese山 中 伸 弥, Yamanaka Shin'ya; born September 4, 1962 in Osaka Prefecture ) is a Japanese physician and stem cell researcher. He is director of the Center for iPS Cell Research ( CiRA ) at Kyoto University and Professor at the Institute for Integrated Cell - Material Sciences ibid. In 2012 it was for the discovery that mature cells can be transformed into stem cells, awarded jointly with John Gurdon of the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Life and work

In 1987, Yamanaka his medical studies at the University of Kobe, 1993, he received his doctorate at the City University of Osaka. He then completed his residency in orthopedic surgery at the National Hospital Osaka and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in San Francisco. 2006 succeeded his group and him on the reproductive medical institute of the University of Kyoto, induced pluripotent stem ( iPS) cells, pluripotent stem cells to generate from mouse connective tissue. 2007 succeeded him and his research group at the newly founded Institute for Integrated Cell - Material Sciences at Kyoto University, the same success with human connective tissue cells. As a motive for the choice of his research area he calls his dissatisfaction with the fact that embryos had to be destroyed to get stem cells.

Awards (selection)

For the artificial stem cell Yamanaka received in November 2007, the Meyenburg Award from the German Cancer Research Center ( DKFZ ) and the Asahi Prize. In 2008 he was awarded, together with Hans R. Scholer and Irving L. Weissman with the Robert Koch Prize, and together with Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell with the Shaw Prize. In 2009 he received the Canada Gairdner International Award and together with John Gurdon the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research. In 2010 he was awarded the Kyoto Prize, the March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology and the Balzan Prize. 2011 Yamanaka was awarded together with Rudolf Jaenisch of the Wolf Prize in Medicine and in collaboration with Elaine Fuchs and James A. Thomson of the Albany Medical Center Prize. He has been granted for 2012 Millennium Technology Prize, and with John Gurdon of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In 2013 he was one of the first winners of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. In the same year he became a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Writings (selection )

• Kazutoshi Takahashi, Shinya Yamanaka: Induction of Pluripotent Stem Cells from Mouse Embryonic and Adult Fibroblast Cultures by Defined Factors. In: Cell. Vol 126, No. 4, 2006, pp. 663-676, doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2006.07.024.