RESEARCHT RAILBLAZERS
Shinya Yamanaka
Known for: his groundbreaking research into stem cells, which earned him a Nobel Prize in 2012.
Every day, cells in your body die – and every day, your stem cells come to the rescue. In the gut and in bone marrow, stem cells constantly renew the body tissues. When you cut your finger, it is stem cells that replace cells that were damaged in the injury.
But ordinary stem cells cannot intervene in more unusual and severe diseases, such as cancer and Alzheimer’s. Then in 2006 a Japanese researcher, Dr Shinya Yamanaka, managed to produce a completely new type of super stem cells. These ‘iPS’ cells (induced pluripotent stem cells) can replace damaged cells
