Researchers John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka on Monday shared a Nobel prize for their research in reprograming cells. Many scientists built on Gurdon's work in the pursuit of curing diseases and perhaps one day generating replacement organs for humans.
1958: John Gurdon of Oxford University clones a tadpole with the genetic characteristics of the original frog, using the nucleus of a skin cell to replace the embryo's nucleus.
1981: Gail Martin of UC-San Francisco isolates stem cells from mice.
1996: Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute uses Dr. Gurdon's method to clone Dolly, the sheep.
1998: James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin isolates human embryonic stem cells.
2006: Shinya Yamanaka generates "embryonic stem-like cells" by introducing four genes into mouse skin cells.
2007: Yamanaka repeats the feat with human cells.
2007: Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute uses Yamanaka's method to treat a sickle cell anemia in a mouse model.
2008: Jaenisch reprograms neurons to improve symptoms in an animal model of Parkinson's disease.
2010: Marius Wernig of Stanford University converts mouse skin cells into functional neurons.
2010: Deepak Srivastava of the Gladstone Institutes reprograms mouse nonmuscle cells into beating heart cells.
2011: Sheng Ding of the Gladstone Institutes proves that skin cells turned into neurons can transmit brain signals.
2012: Japanese team plans first human study of reprogrammed cells to treat age-related macular degeneration.
Source: Gladstone Institute