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Stem cell experts win Nobel prize

Prof John Gurdon has been awarded the Nobel prize

Two pioneers of stem cell research have shared the Nobel prize for medicine or physiology.

John Gurdon from the UK and Shinya Yamanaka from Japan were awarded the prize for transforming specialised cells into stem cells, which can become any other type of cell in the body.

Prof Gurdon used a gut sample to clone frogs and Prof Yamanaka altered genes to reprogramme cells.

The Nobel committe said they had "revolutionised" science.

In 1962, John Gurdon took the genetic information from a cell in the intestines of a frog and placed it inside a frog egg, which developed into a normal tadpole.

Shinya Yamanaka showed that specialised mouse cells could be reprogrammed to become stem cells by intoducing four genes. The resulting stem cells could then be converted to other types of cell.

The Nobel committee said the discovery had "revolutionized our understanding of how cells and organisms develop".