NEW YORK (Kyodo) Researcher Shinya Yamanaka formally received the 2009 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for discoveries concerning nuclear reprogramming and stem cells at a ceremony Friday in New York.
Yamanaka, a Kyoto University professor, said in a speech at the ceremony that he wants to receive the prize on behalf of "many scientists" as his success in developing induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, is based on their past achievements in the field of nuclear reprogramming.
The award, worth $125,000, came several years after Yamanaka developed iPS cells, which have the potential to grow into body tissue.
He is the sixth Japanese researcher to receive the prestigious award, presented by the N.Y.-based Lasker Foundation. A number of people who have won the prize have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize.
Yamanaka "unlocked a new realm of practical possibilities for nuclear reprogramming when he made adult cells behave like embryonic cells by adding only a few factors," the foundation said. "This revelation has offered scientists novel ways to harness and study the powers of embryonic development."
Harold Varmus, winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, served as a judge for this year's Lasker award. He said the procedure developed by Yamanaka and others has helped advance medicine and science.
At a press conference after the ceremony, Yamanaka said, "I truly feel a sense of responsibility as this is the most historical and traditional prize for medicine in the United States."
When told that he is considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize, he said he has no room to think about such a prospect because he is concentrating on moving forward with research aimed at putting the procedure he has developed into practical use.
