John Gurdon

Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge

John Gurdon is a British developmental biologist and Nobel Laureate, based at the Gurdon Institute at the University of Cambridge, which bears his name. He shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Shinya Yamanaka for the discovery that mature, differentiated cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent—capable of developing into any cell type. In a landmark 1962 experiment, Gurdon demonstrated nuclear reprogramming by transplanting the nucleus from a differentiated intestinal cell of a frog into an enucleated egg cell and showing that the resulting egg could develop into a normal tadpole. This was a stunning refutation of the prevailing belief that cell differentiation was irreversible and that the genomes of differentiated cells were permanently altered. Gurdon's nuclear transfer experiments established that all cells contain the complete genetic information of the organism and that epigenetic changes underlying differentiation can be reversed. This foundational insight, demonstrated four decades before Yamanaka's discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells, fundamentally changed our understanding of development and opened the entire field of cellular reprogramming. The Gurdon Institute, which he co-founded, is one of the world's leading centers for cancer and developmental biology research. Gurdon has received the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the Jean Brachet Award, the Copley Medal, and numerous honorary degrees worldwide.