This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has gone to a pair of scientists who developed a technique known as cellular reprogramming, which enables scientists to create human embryonic stem cells without destroying human life.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is reporting that John B. Gurdon of the U.K. and Shinya Yamanaka of Japan shared this year’s prize for their work which has revolutionized the field of biology and given birth to many new areas of research.

Shinya Yamanaka and John Gurdon

Gurdon and Yamanaka both conducted experiments which enabled mature stem cells to be returned to their embryonic state, and then coaxed into becoming other cells of the body. It allows scientists to create human embryonic stem cells without having to use, and ultimately to destroy, human embyros, thus sidestepping the thorny ethical issues surrounding embryonic stem cell research. Their findings also advanced the prospect of using a patient’s own mature cells to create fresh tissue and treat disease.

“Scientists used to believe that the fate of our cells was a one-way trip,” the WSJ reports. “We start as a fertilized egg; turn into an embryo with immature, undifferentiated cells; and then gradually develop into a person made up of an army of specialist cells, whether blood, bone, muscle or skin. Dr. Gurdon and Dr. Yamanka did vital work to demonstrate that cells aren’t irreversibly committed to their later, specialized fate but can be returned to their immature state.”

Even though this new technique is still confined to the lab, and no patients have yet to be treated with reprogrammed cells, the work of Gurdon and Yamanaka is inspiring hundreds of labs around the world to make this new technology into an ethical alternative to embryonic stem cells.

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