生命科學與醫學獎
2008

伊恩・維爾穆特（Ian Wilmut）、基夫・坎貝爾（Keith Campbell）和山中伸彌（Shinya Yamanaka）前沿性的研究揭示，哺乳動物細胞可以再塑成為早期的幹細胞，他們的研究也為推進人類疾病治療新方法和農業的發展做出了重要貢獻。

在包括人類在內的脊椎動物發育過程中，受精卵發育成胚胎，胚胎內的細胞通過分化產生構成不同組織和器官的體細胞。受精卵被認為是全能性的，因為它可以發育成一個完整的機體，而胚胎內的細胞被認為是多能性的，因為它們只能分化成為構成器官的體細胞。半個世紀以前，英國劍橋大學的胚胎學家約翰·哥登發現，發育鐘可以被逆轉，青蛙終末分化的體細胞可以再次獲得多能性或全能性功能。隨後的研究證明，哺乳動物細胞，特別是人的細胞，也可以通過再塑恢復其全能性。這些研究，不但推進了我們對發育機制的了解，更使我們相信，在此基礎上，會給我們帶來疾病治療方法的巨大進步。這些突破性的研究發生在最近15年。2008年度邵逸夫生命科學與醫學獎獲獎科學家們所做出的里程碑式的貢獻，將幹細胞的研究帶到了一個全新的時代，全人類將因此而獲益。

During the development of vertebrates, including humans, the fertilized egg develops into the embryo, and the cells in the embryo then proceed to differentiate to form somatic cells of different tissues and organs. The fertilized egg is considered totipotent, as it can develop into a whole organism, while the cells in the embryo are pluripotent because they are capable of differentiating into somatic cells that make up all the organs. Half a century ago, it was found by John Gurdon that this developmental clock can be reversed, and that differentiated somatic cells in a frog model could regain their pluripotency or totipotency. Attempts were then made to show that mammalian cells – and human cells in particular – could also be reprogrammed back to a pluripotent state, because it is believed that such knowledge may advance our understanding of developmental mechanisms, and yield new approaches for disease treatment. The breakthroughs came within the last 15 years. The scientists honoured by the 2008 Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine used different approaches to reprogramme an adult cell into the totipotent or pluripotent state, and in doing so made important contributions to potential new approaches to improve agriculture practices and to treat human diseases.

Ian Wilmut and Keith H S Campbell worked together in the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh for many years, using sheep as the model, in order to understand the early physiology of the egg and how laboratory manipulations can improve our knowledge of the development from egg to birth. They pioneered a new technique of starving embryo cells before transferring their nucleus to fertilized egg cells. The technique synchronized the cell cycles of both cells and the results led Wilmut and Campbell to believe that any type of cell could be used to produce a clone. In 1995, they produced a pair of lambs called Megan and Morag from embryonic cells. They performed nuclear transfer experiments in which nuclei from embryonic, foetal and adult cells of the sheep were transplanted into fertilized eggs derived from ewes. Although the yield was low, they were successful in obtaining live newborn lambs from these transfers. One of the live-born lambs, Dolly, was derived from the transplantation of the nucleus of an adult mammary cell. Thus, Dolly was the first example of the reprogramming of the adult cell back to totipotency in a mammal. They further created a sheep called Polly in which they showed that it was possible to incorporate a human gene into the donor’s DNA before cloning, thus indicating that it may be possible to use animals to produce human proteins for the benefit of mankind. Since then, the work of Wilmut and Campbell has been duplicated in many other animal species and has provided approaches to produce useful therapeutic products with cloned animals and to improve agricultural practices.