Albert Lasker
Basic Medical Research Award

Acceptance Remarks by John Gurdon

Anyone who is accorded a Lasker Award in Basic Medical Science is immensely grateful, and I more than others for the following reason. This is that the primary work for which recognition is kindly made is for experiments done over fifty years ago. This testifies to the meticulous care of the highly distinguished members of the jury, a characteristic for which they are famous. To look back at the work done in 1958 is exceptional by any standards and I can only say how grateful I am.

The same point merits a little further comment. At that time in the late 1950s and early 1960s, I don't think anyone could have foreseen the relevance of nuclear transplantation to current ideas of cell replacement. The original aim of these experiments was to determine whether or not the genome remained constant in all cell types. The possibility of deriving one cell type from another clearly existed. But two key advances were necessary for this to become a reality in humans. One was that embryonic stem cells needed to be able to proliferate indefinitely without the usual accompanying process of progressive differentiation that takes place in normal development. The major discovery of embryonic stem cells by Martin Evans in 1981 has indeed been recognized by a Lasker and other awards. The other key advance is that of Shinya Yamanaka with his discovery of iPS cells, obviating the need to obtain human eggs. It is a special pleasure to find myself honoured at the same time as Shinya Yamanaka.

Looking further ahead in my own direction of work, I like to think that it will be eventually useful to identify the molecules and mechanisms by which eggs can efficiently reprogram sperm after fertilization and somatic nuclei after transplantation to eggs. These natural molecules could be put to use in facilitating the derivation of embryonic stem cells from adult tissues in humans. Our recent work all indicates that the molecules and mechanisms of reprogramming by eggs are quite different from those that take place by the iPS route.

The history of nuclear transfer and its potential relevance to cell replacement exemplifies the principle, so often seen in many previous Lasker Awards. This is that a question and answer in basic science very commonly turn out, in a way not at all predicted at the time, to have a potential relevance and usefulness for human health.

I am enormously grateful for this award.