Shinya Yamanaka
Shinya Yamanaka Born (1962-09-04) September 4, 1962 (age 52) Higashiōsaka, Osaka, Japan Nationality Japan Fields Stem cell research Institutions Kyoto University Nara Institute of Science and Technology Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease Alma mater Kobe University Osaka City University Known for Induced pluripotent stem cell Notable awards Meyenburg Prize (2007) Massry Prize (2008) Robert Koch Prize (2008) Shaw Prize (2008) Gairdner Foundation International Award (2009) Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (2009) BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2010) Wolf Prize (2011) McEwen Award for Innovation (2011) Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (2012) Millennium Technology Prize (2012) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2012) Play media Video of a single beating cardiomyocyte, taken from an open-access article co-authored by Yamanaka. Isolating cells by cell type is an important step in stem cell therapy. Shinya Yamanaka (山中 伸弥, Yamanaka Shin'ya?, born September 4, 1962) is a Japanese Nobel Prize-winning stem cell researcher. He serves as the director of Center for iPS Cell (induced Pluripotent Stem Cell) Research and Application and a professor at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences at Kyoto University; as a senior investigator at the UCSF-affiliated J. David Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, California; and as a professor of anatomy at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Yamanaka is also a past president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR). He received the 2010 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine category. Also he received the Wolf Prize in Medicine in 2011 with Rudolf Jaenisch; the Millennium Technology Prize in 2012 together with Linus Torvalds. In 2012 he and John Gurdon were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery that mature cells can be converted to stem cells. In 2013 he was awarded the $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for his work.