When developmental biologist John Gurdon (pic, right) was 15, he was ranked last among 250 boys studying biology at Eton. His teachers thought he was stupid. 64 years later all that changed.

Gurdon was jointly awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Japanese stem cell researcher Shinya Yamanaka with whom he shared the 750,000 pounds prize money.

In 1962 Gurdon produced living tadpoles from the adult cells of a frog. He extracted the cell nucleus of the frog which contains chromosomes, the genes that carry heredity information. He then injected these chromosomes into a frog's egg whose own nucleus had been removed. The new genes took over, the new nucleus was introduced, and tadpoles were produced.

But no one could figure out in detail what had happened at the cellular or genetic level. It was a reprogramming feat. Where good luck intervened was his intuition that this reprogramming would work.

Independent of Gurdon, Yamanaka working with mice decades later discovered that the reprogramming is accomplished by gene control agents, what are now called transcription factors. These transcription factors are basically proteins made by master genes to regulate other genes. So finally the genetic answer to Gordon's discovery of creating tadpoles was revealed by Yamanaka. How fitting then that they won the Nobel Prize jointly.

Many people object to stem cell research on ethical and religious grounds because they feel it interferes with the mysteries of nature. But stem cells, primitive cells from which mature tissues of the body develop, are very useful in regenerative medicine. It has the potential to treat heart disease, diabetes, and Parkinson's by regenerating old damaged cells and tissues. So biologists and other scientists like Yamanaka have forged ahead despite these moral battles.

New transcription factors which regulate other genes and allow people to better adapt to high altitude have been discovered at higher altitude destinations. This is relevant for us because Sherpas seem to have this gene which perhaps allows them to perform better while climbing the tallest peaks in the world. This obviously requires further research. But there is no question these are exciting times in stem cell medicine, especially with scientists winning Nobel prizes in this field.