"When I saw the embryo, I suddenly realized
there was
such a small difference between it and my daughters," said Dr.
Yamanaka.
... "I thought, we can't keep destroying embryos for our research.
There
must be another way."
When Shinya Yamanaka examined a human embryo
under a
microscope, the trajectory of his research changed and he set out
to find a way
to manipulate adult cells and create cells with the same
properties as
embryonic stem cells without killing human embryos. While many scientists
believed this was
impossible, Yamanaka’s desire to find an ethical alternative to
killing human
embryos created a shock wave in the scientific community.
In 2007, Dr. Yamanaka found “another way” and
forever
changed the focus of stem cell research when he announced that he
had
successfully reverted normal adult skin cells into an
embryonic‑like state by
changing only four genes in the cells. The cells, in later
experiments, have
been shown to have the same properties as embryonic stem cells.
Since 2007
other researchers have made advances in techniques used to
transform regular
cells into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.
For his discovery, Yamanaka has been given
numerous awards
but none more prestigious than when he was awarded the Nobel Prize
in Medicine
in October of 2012. Rarely,
is the Nobel
Prize for Medicine given out just five years after a discovery.
Yamanaka’s work had clear implications for the
prolife
movement. Prior to Yamanaka’s discovery, many scientists hoped to
create
patient-specific embryonic stem cells by creating cloned human
embryos and killing
them for their stem cells. This, if it was ever successful, would
have required
the creation and destruction of thousands of human embryos and
would
necessitate countless women to undergo the dangerous process of
donating human
eggs.
Yamanaka’s work changed all this as he was able
to show
patient-specific cells, with the same properties as embryonic stem
cells, could
be created rather easily without human cloning and the destruction
of human
embryos.
Since Yamanaka’s work was published, numerous
scientists who
previously favored human cloning for research have abandoned their
efforts to
create cloned human embryos and instead have focused on iPS cell
research.
