NEWS OF THE W EEK
2012 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE AWARDS: Researchers split prize for their work on cellular reprogramming
Yamanaka
stone, John B. Gurdon, 79, and Shinya Yamanaka, 50, will share the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Gurdon and Yamanaka’s work showed that cellscanbereprogrammedtobecomepluripotent—that is, capable of turning into any kind of cell in the body. The discovery transformed understanding of developmental biology, created new ways to study the onset of disease, and now paves the way for therapies to combat a wide variety of diseases. Winning the Nobel Prize is “a tremendous honor, especially since I heard I share the prize with John Gurdon,” said Yamanaka, a stem Gurdon cell researcher at Japan’s Kyoto University and San Francisco’s Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, at an Oct. 8 press conference. “I was able to initiate my project because of his experiments 50 years ago.” In 1962, Gurdon, a developmental biologist at CamWIKIMEDIA COMMONS
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OR DISCOVERING that a cell’s fate is not set in
bridge University, published the results of an experiment in which he removed the nucleus from a frog embryo and replaced it with the nucleus from a tadpole’s intestinal cell (J. Embryol. Exp. Morphol. 1962, 10, 622). The modified embryo turned into a normal tadpole, showing that the genome—even from a differentiated cell—holds all of the information required for an organism to develop. This experiment was also the first time an animal was cloned. Some 40 years later, Yamanaka was the first to turn a mouse skin cell into a pluripotent stem cell capable of turning into any kind of cell (Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j. cell.2006.07.024). In particular, Yamanaka showed this reprogramming required the activation of only four genes. The discoveries of Yamanaka and Gurdon “revolutionized regenerative medicine,” comments Ian Wilmut, the University of Edinburgh researcher who famously cloned Dolly the sheep. One practical application of cellular reprogramming is in studies of disease development in the brain or other organs from which “you can’t take significant biopsies,” Wilmut says. By reprogramming skin cells into more primitive cells and then differentiating them into brain cells, researchers can observe the onset of disease, discover its molecular mechanisms, and screen for potential drugs. “The work of Gurdon and Yamanaka is especially important from a chemist’s perspective since it opened an excitingfrontier—small-molecule-mediatedtransdifferentiation,” says Stuart L. Schreiber, a chemical biologist at Harvard University and MIT’s Broad Institute. “Now chemists can explore whether they can impose their will on tissues in the body with new medicines” that convert an abundant cell type into another that is deficient as a result of disease, he says, such as dopamine-producing neurons to help cure Parkinson’s disease. Yamanaka and Gurdon will split the $1.2 million prize.—SARAH EVERTS
TRADE SECRETS ACS to pay $22.6 million to Leadscope to settle intellectual property case The American Chemical Society and Leadscope Inc. and its three founders have reached a settlement in their longrunning intellectual property dispute. ACS, which publishes C&EN, has agreed to pay Leadscope and its three founders $22.6 million to settle and resolve all claims associated with American Chemical Society v. Leadscope Inc. The settlement, which was announced on Oct. 5, also makes clear that all parties agree that “all right, title, interest, and ownership in the Leadscope software and products that were the subject of the litigation belong exclusively to Leadscope.”
“Each party is pleased to put an end to this long-standing dispute,” say ACS, Leadscope, and the company’s founders in a joint statement. The case involved an initial allegation by ACS that Leadscope founders had misappropriated ACS intellectual property in order to develop a software product to compete with the society’s Chemical Abstracts Service. Leadscope then countersued, seeking damages for unfair competition, tortious interference with business relations, deceptive trade practices, and defamation. A jury found in favor of Leadscope in 2008 on three of its claims, and an ap-
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pellate court upheld the verdict in 2010. The Ohio Supreme Court weighed in last month, partially reversing the lower court ruling (C&EN, Sept. 24, page 5). The top state court overturned the defamation finding but left in place the finding of unfair competition and tortious interference. ACS will be able to cover the settlement with “a portion of its cash and investments,” the society says in a statement. “This payment will not impact the society’s member dues; extensive products, programs, and services advancing chemistry; staffing levels; or the ability of ACS to achieve its mission,” ACS says.— SUSAN MORRISSEY
