Mariselle Lancero, a research associate II, and research scientist Kiichiro Tomoda, PhD, work in the Yamanaka Lab at the Gladstone Institutes on the day Shinya Yamanaka won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

Stem cell researcher Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, reached in Kyoto shortly after being named winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, said he was doing some housecleaning when the call came in, and was very surprised.

But at UCSF, where Yamanaka joined the faculty in 2007, splitting his time between Kyoto University and the UCSF-affiliated Gladstone Institutes, his winning the Nobel Prize was considered virtually inevitable. The only surprise, colleagues say, was that the honor came so quickly.

Often the Nobel Committee waits decades before awarding the prize to make sure the discovery stands the test of time. Its rare for a scientists influence on scientific thought and experimentation to spread as fast as it did in this case.

Yamanaka discovered keys to the developmental destiny of cells, and how these keys can be used to manipulate cell fate in ways that offer hope to scientists who seek new methods of providing tissues for organ transplantation and for other medical applications. His seminal paper was published in 2006, and there is an expectation that the techniques he developed will lead to clinical trials for macular degeneration as early as next year.

Its a great day for the Gladstone, and a great day for UCSF, said Deepak Srivastava, MD, director of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease and a UCSF professor in the departments of pediatrics and biochemistry and biophysics.

Im a little surprised it happened this year, Srivastava said. I thought it would happen in the next five to 10 years.

Even without considering the clinical potential, the implications of Yamanakas work for understanding basic biology are deserving of recognition, Srivastava said.

The award is carefully worded, he noted. The fundamental, basic discovery that we can alter cell fates is really what this prize is about; its not so much about stem cells, or even about regenerative medicine. Its about the discovery that we can control the fate of the cell by manipulating DNA without changing the genetic code.

The ability to control cell fate, we hope, will allow us in the future to use the technology for regenerative medicine and disease modeling to drive discovery, he said.

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Nobel Prize Winner Yamanaka Remains at Forefront of Fast-Moving Stem Cell Field He Galvanized