shinya yamanaka

Shinya Yamanaka, born in 1962 in Osaka Prefecture, Japan, is a Japanese physician. He is currently the director of the iPS Cell Research Institute at Kyoto University and a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, USA. In 2012, Nobunaga Yamanaka won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. During high school, Yamanaka was passionate about judo. He broke his bones more than 10 times due to practicing judo. Yamanaka's father told him that you had been injured multiple times. Seeing how doctors alleviate pain for patients, you will become a doctor and serve humanity in the future. In addition, Yamanaka was greatly encouraged by reading the works of physician Tokuda Huxiong, who believed that life is equal. He decided to pursue a career in medicine and was admitted to the Medical Department of National Kobe University, preparing to become an orthopedic doctor in the future. During his clinical internship after graduating from university, Yamanaka discovered that he had little talent for surgery, and even if someone else performed a 20 minute surgery, he might not have completed it in two hours; And he believes that being an excellent doctor can only help a few patients, and if medical research results are successful, it can usually help more patients, so his interest turns to basic medical research. In 2007, Masami Yamanaka discovered a method of inducing human epidermal cells to exhibit embryonic stem cell activity characteristics through experiments on mice, which earned him the 2012 Nobel Prize. This biological milestone contribution indicates that mature cells from intact mammals can be reprogrammed to induce multifunctional stem cell iPS cells, which can develop into cells from various other organs in the body. This discovery has completely changed human understanding of cell and organ growth, and textbooks have been rewritten accordingly, establishing new research fields. By reprogramming human cells, scientists have opened up new avenues for disease research and found new methods for disease treatment. Although his great discovery has excited scientists around the world and brought countless possibilities to the biomedical field, this former doctor is still very humble and cautious. We still have a lot of foundational work to do, such as ensuring the safety of iPS cells. This is not international competition in the Olympics, but international cooperation. Now, all of our work is just the beginning.