induced pluripotent stem cells

おめでとうございます！
Japanese professor wins Nobel

This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Kyoto University Professor Shinya Yamanaka.

Yamanaka succeeded in turning human skin cells into iPS cells, or pluripotent stem cells, that can grow into various types of tissue and cells.

The 50 year old is the 19th Japanese to be awarded the Nobel Prize, and the second in 25 years to win this category.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

ノーベル財団のサイトには山中 伸弥教授の受賞理由のポイントが掲載されていました。

Shinya Yamanaka

Born: 1962

Affiliation at the time of the award: Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

Prize motivation: "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent"

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2012/yamanaka.html

iPSのiはinduced （「人工の」）とiPhoneやiPadの頭文字の流行にかけて山中教授が命名したもの。pluripotent stem cellsは「多分化能性幹細胞」です。念のため。（UG）