[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/5748\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003ENobel Prize winner who nearly flunked science advises perseverance\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt the age of 15, Professor John Gurdon was told by his teacher that his aspirations of becoming a scientist were \u2018ridiculous\u2019, yet he went on win the Nobel Prize in 2012 with the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018I got this crippling report which said that the teacher had heard that I had some interest in becoming a scientist \u2013 and that this was completely ridiculous because it would be a total waste of time on the teacher\u2019s part, and on mine, for me to do any more science,\u2019 said University of Cambridge-based Prof. Gurdon.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis life experience might explain his advice for any aspiring scientists: \u2018If experiments \u2013 or other things \u2013 do not succeed at once, don\u2019t give up!\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Gurdon\u2019s interest in biology began when he was about eight years old, when his mother and aunt encouraged him to collect insects. Throughout his childhood he devoured books about insects and his interest in science grew.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThen came the hammer blow from his teacher, yet he did not give up on his passion. His parents paid for private tuition which helped him reach his goal of studying at university.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe university system, where it was more important to understand concepts, proved to be much more positive for Prof. Gurdon, compared to the system of rote learning of facts at school, which he recalled was \u2018a pretty disastrous experience\u2019.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDeveloping brilliance \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe undergraduate years proved to Prof. Gurdon that he had what it took to become a scientist, and that his teacher\u2019s opinion of him was mistaken. His career really began to take off when he started post-graduate studies in 1956.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis was a time of great excitement in science as three years earlier James Watson and Francis Crick had famously discovered the spiral structure of DNA, the material holding the \u2018code for life\u2019. This put genetics and people interested in human development into the limelight.\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018If experiments \u2013 or other things \u2013 do not succeed at once, don\u2019t give up!\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProfessor John B. Gurdon, joint winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Gurdon was one such scientist interested in developmental biology \u2013 how organs and species are pre-programmed by DNA to develop in a particular way. \u2018The major problem, I should say that preoccupied me, at that early stage, was whether all cells of the body have the same genes, or not,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis \u2018big question\u2019 had interested biologists for a century, and it was one that Prof. Gurdon answered, earning him the title \u2018the godfather of cloning\u2019.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe discovered that the specialisation of cells is reversible, replacing the immature cell nucleus in an egg cell of a frog with the nucleus from a mature intestinal cell.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe modified egg cell developed into a normal tadpole, showing that the DNA of the mature cell still had all the information needed to develop all cells in the frog. The technique used to clone Dolly the sheep in 1996 was similar to that of nuclear transplantation that Prof. Gurdon used to clone a frog\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt earned him a joint Nobel Prize alongside Professor Shinya Yamanaka, who discovered how intact mature cells in mice could be reprogrammed to become immature stem cells that are versatile, like the ones taken from embryos.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe discovery meant that versatile stem cells could be created without the need to destroy human embryos.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESupporting stem cells \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStem cells can serve many useful purposes, said Prof. Gurdon. For example, he said, they can be used to grow cultures of human disease to test new drugs, or to grow replacement cells for cells in the body \u2013 such as the heart, brain or liver \u2013 that are not working properly. These uses mean that stem cells could revolutionise biological science in the future.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEurope ranks highly in stem cell research, the Nobel Laureate asserted, while warning that the best researchers could be lost if funding were to fall off here.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt is also important to reach out to the next generation, added Prof. Gurdon. \u2018It would be good if the benefits of stem cell research can be made more clear to younger people, probably by ensuring that school teachers are aware of the benefits of this field,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-ksg69bwnuq0rpqekxk7vcqivxr1dtzplhg9kuqqbzie\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-KsG69BwNUq0RpQEKxk7vcQIvxr1DTzpLhG9KuQQbzIE\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]