THE 2012 Nobel Prize season opens with the pick for the medicine award, marking the start of a week of announcements and speculation over who will collect the literature and peace prizes.

The medicine prize will be announced in Stockholm at 11:30am (2030 AEDT) at the earliest.

With the awards committees keeping mum on their choices, Nobel watchers are left to play a guessing game.

Swedish media have suggested the medicine prize could go to Japan's Shinya Yamanaka and Britain's John Gurdon for their research in nuclear reprogramming, a process that instructs adult cells to form early stem cells which can then be used to form any tissue type.

James Till of Canada could also be honoured for his related work on blood stem cells.

Other medicine fields cited as worthy of Nobel recognition this year are epigenetics, which studies how genes respond to their environment, and optogenetics, where researchers can turn on or off a nerve cell, for example in a fruit fly or a mouse, to reprogram the brain.

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, perhaps the most watched of the prestigious awards, will be revealed Friday in Oslo, and the five-member Norwegian Nobel committee has 231 nominees to choose from this year.

No clear frontrunner has emerged so far, though Coptic Christian Maggie Gobran of Egypt, dubbed the "Mother Teresa" of Cairo's slums, tops the list of one betting site with odds of 6.5-to-1.

The committee keeps the list of nominees a well-guarded secret, but those who are entitled to nominate candidates can disclose the names they have put forward so the list is known to include former US president Bill Clinton, ex-German chancellor Helmut Kohl, the EU and WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning.

The head of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, Kristian Berg Harpviken, follows the work of the committee and each year publishes his own shortlist of possible winners.

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Medicine prize kicks off Nobel prizes

British scientist John Gurdon and Japanese researcher Shinya Yamanaka shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine Monday for experiments separated by almost 50 years that provide deep insight into how animals develop and offer hope for a new era of personalized medicine.

Their findings have revolutionized our understanding of how cells and organisms develop, the Nobel committee said in the prize announcement.

In 1962, Gurdon wowed the world of biology by cloning a frog via a clever technique. He transplanted the genetic material from an intestinal cell of one frog into the fertilized egg cell from another. The egg developed into a tadpole, proving that all of the genetic instructions needed to turn an embryo into an adult exist even in so-called adult cells of the body the specialized cells that make up skin, muscle, nerves and other tissues.

In 2006 and 2007, Yamanaka extended that insight by turning back time on individual cells from both mice and humans. By sprinkling four genes on ordinary skin cells, Yamanaka discovered a virtual fountain of youth for cells: Any type of cell, he found, could be reverted to a young, embryonic state. These induced embryonic cells behave much like the ethically contentious stem cells gleaned from human embryos. They can be grown into many other types of tissues but without having to destroy any embryos.

The breakthrough offered hope that someday, skin cells could be harvested from a patient, sent back in time to an embryonic state, and then grown into replacement tissues such as heart muscle or nerve cells.

Yamanakas breakthrough has spawned a huge research global effort to turn these induced pluripotent stem cells, as theyre called, into therapies tailored to individual patients for a wide range of ailments, including heart disease, some forms of blindness, Parkinsons disease and many other disorders.

The first human trials of such therapies could begin next year, Yamanaka told the journal Nature earlier this year. He said eye diseases present an attractive target for the first tests.

On Monday, Yamanaka credited his co-laureate for making his advances possible. This field has a long history starting with John Gurdon, he said in a brief telephone interview posted on the Nobel Prize Web site. Yamanaka noted he was born in 1962 the year Gurdon published his pivotal frog experiments.

A surgeon by training, Yamanaka, who splits his time between Japans Kyoto University and the University of California, San Francisco, said treating patients has always been his aim. My goal all my life is to bring this stem cell technology to the bedside, to patients.

But the therapeutic potential of induced stem cells remains in question. Some experiments show the cells may form tumors, prompting skepticism that they will ever be safe enough to treat heart disease, Parkinsons disease and many other conditions where specific cells of the body break down.

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Nobel Prize for medicine awarded to Gurdon, Yamanaka for stem cell discoveries

STOCKHOLM British researcher John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka of Japan won this year's Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine on Monday for discovering that mature, specialized cells of the body can be reprogrammed into stem cells -- a discovery that scientists hope to turn into new treatments.

Scientists want to harness that reprogramming to create replacement tissues for treating diseases like Parkinson's, diabetes and for studying the roots of diseases in the laboratory.

The prize committee at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute said the discovery has "revolutionized our understanding of how cells and organisms develop."

Gurdon showed in 1962 -- the year Yamanaka was born -- that the DNA from specialized cells of frogs, like skin or intestinal cells, could be used to generate new tadpoles. That showed the DNA still had its ability to drive the formation of all cells of the body.

In 1997, the cloning of Dolly the sheep by other scientists showed that the same process Gurdon discovered in frogs would work in mammals.

More than 40 years after Gurdon's discovery, in 2006, Yamanaka showed that a surprisingly simple recipe could turn mature cells back into primitive cells, which in turn could be prodded into different kinds of mature cells.

- The Nobel committee

Basically, the primitive cells were the equivalent of embryonic stem cells, which had been embroiled in controversy because to get human embryonic cells, human embryos had to be destroyed. Yamanaka's method provided a way to get such primitive cells without destroying embryos.

"The discoveries of Gurdon and Yamanaka have shown that specialized cells can turn back the developmental clock under certain circumstances," the committee said. "These discoveries have also provided new tools for scientists around the world and led to remarkable progress in many areas of medicine."

Just last week, Japanese scientists reported using Yamanaka's approach to turn skin cells from mice into eggs that produced baby mice.

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British, Japanese scientists win Nobel medicine prize

(Reuters) - Here is a look at the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded jointly on Monday to John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka.

* The 2012 prize was awarded "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent". The two scientists discovered that mature, specialized cells can be reprogrammed to become immature cells capable of developing into all tissues of the body. Their findings revolutionized understanding of how cells and organisms develop.

* Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded 102 times since 1901. In all but 38 cases they were given to more than one recipient.

* Of the 199 individuals awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, only ten are women. Of these eight, Barabara McClintock is the only one who has received an unshared Nobel Prize.

* Famous Winners: Robert Koch, the German physician and bacteriologist, won in 1905 for his work on tuberculosis. Frederick Banting, the Canadian physiologist who with his assistant Charles Best discovered insulin, the principal remedy for diabetes, won the prize in 1923.

* The oldest living recipient is Rita Levi-Montalcini, the first Nobel laureate to reach her hundredth birthday, who won the prize in 1986 with Stanley Cohen for their discoveries of growth factors. She celebrated her 103rd birthday last April.

Sources: Reuters, http://nobelprize.org. Chambers Biographical Dictionary.

(Reporting by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)

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Factbox: A look at the Nobel Medicine Prize

The 2012 Nobel Prize season opens Monday with the award for medicine, marking the start of a week of announcements and speculation over who will collect the literature and peace prizes.

The medicine prize will be announced in Stockholm at 11:30 am (0930 GMT) at the earliest.

With the awards committees keeping mum on their choices, Nobel watchers are left to play a guessing game.

Swedish media have suggested the medicine prize could go to Japan's Shinya Yamanaka and Britain's John Gurdon for their research in nuclear reprogramming, a process that instructs adult cells to form early stem cells which can then be used to form any tissue type.

James Till of Canada could also be honoured for his related work on blood stem cells.

Other medicine fields cited as worthy of Nobel recognition this year are epigenetics, which studies how genes respond to their environment, and optogenetics, where researchers can turn on or off a nerve cell, for example in a fruit fly or a mouse, to reprogramme the brain.

Japanese media voiced hope Yamanaka was in with a chance, with the Nikkei business daily declaring he was a "sure" thing for a Nobel one day, but conceding it might not be this year.

"It's a matter of time," it said.

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, perhaps the most watched of the prestigious awards, will be revealed Friday in Oslo, and the five-member Norwegian Nobel committee has 231 nominees to choose from this year.

No clear frontrunner has emerged so far, although Coptic Christian Maggie Gobran of Egypt, dubbed the "Mother Teresa" of Cairo's slums, tops the list of one betting site with odds of 6.5-to-1.

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Medicine prize kicks off Nobel week

Recent winners of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, and their research, according to the Nobel Foundation:

2012: Briton John Gurdon and Japan's Shinya Yamanaka for their discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed into immature cells that can be turned into all tissues of the body, a finding that revolutionized understanding of how cells and organisms develop.

2011: American Bruce Beutler and French researcher Jules Hoffmann for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity, sharing it with Canadian-born Ralph Steinman for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity.

2010: British researcher Robert Edwards for the development of in vitro fertilization.

2009: Americans Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak for their discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase, research that has implications for cancer and aging research.

2008: Harald zur Hausen and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier for discoveries of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer and the discovery of human immunodeficiency virus.

2007: Mario R. Capecchi and Oliver Smithies of the United States and Martin J. Evans of the United Kingdom, for their discoveries leading to a powerful technique for manipulating mouse genes.

2006: Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello, of the United States, for their work in controlling the flow of genetic information.

2005: Barry J. Marshall and Robin Warren, of Australia, for their work in how the bacterium Helicobacter pylori plays a role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease.

2004: Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck, both of the United States, for their work in studying odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system in human beings.

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Recent winners of the Nobel Prize in medicine

A British researcher and a Japanese scientist won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine on Monday for discovering that ordinary cells of the body can be reprogrammed into stem cells, which then can turn into any kind of tissue a discovery that may led to new treatments.

Scientists want to build on the work by John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka to create replacement tissues for treating diseases like Parkinson's and diabetes, and for studying the roots of diseases in the laboratory without the ethical dilemma posed by embryonic stem cells.

In announcing the 8 million kronor ($1.2 million) award, the Nobel committee at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute said the discovery has "revolutionized our understanding of how cells and organisms develop."

Gurdon showed in 1962 the year Yamanaka was born that the DNA from specialized cells of frogs, like skin or intestinal cells, could be used to generate new tadpoles. That showed the DNA still had its ability to drive the formation of all cells of the body.

At the time, the discovery had "no obvious therapeutic benefit at all," Gurdon told reporters in London.

"It was almost 50 years before the value the potential value of that basic scientific research comes to light," he said.

In 1997, the cloning of Dolly the sheep by other scientists showed that the same process Gurdon discovered in frogs would work in mammals.

AP

More than 40 years after Gurdon's discovery, in 2006, Yamanaka showed that a surprisingly simple recipe could turn mature cells back into primitive cells, which in turn could be prodded into different kinds of mature cells.

Basically, the primitive cells were the equivalent of embryonic stem cells, which had been embroiled in controversy because to get human embryonic cells, human embryos had to be destroyed. Yamanaka's method provided a way to get such primitive cells without destroying embryos.

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Nobel Prize for Medicine Awarded

STOCKHOLM (AP) British researcher John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka of Japan won this year's Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discovering that mature, specialized cells of the body can be reprogrammed into stem cells a discovery that scientists hope to turn into new treatments.

Scientists want to harness that reprogramming to create replacement tissues for treating diseases like Parkinson's and for studying the roots of diseases in the laboratory.

The prize committee at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute said the discovery has "revolutionized our understanding of how cells and organisms develop."

Gurdon showed in 1962 that the DNA from specialized cells of frogs, like skin or intestinal cells, could be used to generate new tadpoles. That showed the DNA still had its ability to drive the formation of all cells of the body.

More than 40 years later, in 2006, Yamanaka showed that a surprisingly simple recipe could turn mature cells back into primitive cells, which in turn could be prodded into different kinds of mature cells.

Basically, the primitive cells were the equivalent of embryonic stem cells, which had been embroiled in controversy because to get human embryonic cells, human embryos had to be destroyed. Yamanaka's method provided a way to get such primitive cells without destroying embryos.

"The discoveries of Gurdon and Yamanaka have shown that specialized cells can turn back the developmental clock under certain circumstances," the committee said. "These discoveries have also provided new tools for scientists around the world and led to remarkable progress in many areas of medicine."

Just last week, Japanese scientists reported using Yamanaka's approach to turn skin cells from mice into eggs that produced baby mice.

Gurdon, 79, has served as a professor of cell biology at Cambridge University's Magdalene College and is currently at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, which he founded. Yamanaka, born in 1962, worked at the Gladstone Institute in San Francisco and Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan.

Goran Hansson, the secretary of the prize committee, said he had reached both winners before the announcement.

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Gurdon, Yamanaka win Nobel medicine prize

The Nobel Prize for medicine is the first in a series of prizes being announced this week.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Read a version of this story in Arabic

(CNN) -- The 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was awarded Monday to Sir John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for work that revolutionized the understanding of how cells and organisms develop.

The Nobel Assembly's announcement at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm is the first for what will be a series of prizes announced this week. The Norwegian Nobel committee will announce the most anticipated of the annual honors -- the Nobel Peace Prize -- on Friday in Oslo.

Gurdon, 79, of Dippenhall, England, and Yamanaka, 50, of Osaka, Japan, share the prize jointly "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent" -- the ability of a cell to differentiate into another cell type, according to the Nobel committee.

Shinya Yamanaka (pictured) and Sir John B. Gurdon won the Nobel Prize in medicine for their revolutionary cell research.

Gurdon discovered in 1962 that the cells are reversible in an experiment with an egg cell of a frog. Yamanaka discovered 40 years later that mature cells in mice could be reprogrammed as immature cells, the committee said.

"These groundbreaking discoveries have completely changed our view of the development and cellular specialisation. We now understand that the mature cell does not have to be confined forever to its specialised state," the Nobel Assembly said in a statement following the announcement.

"Textbooks have been rewritten and new research fields have been established. By reprogramming human cells, scientists have created new opportunities to study diseases and develop methods for diagnosis and therapy.

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Nobel Prize in medicine awarded for reprogrammed cells

The Nobel Prize for medicine is the first in a series of prizes being announced this week.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Read a version of this story in Arabic

(CNN) -- The 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was awarded Monday to Sir John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for work that revolutionized the understanding of how cells and organisms develop.

The Nobel Assembly's announcement at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm is the first for what will be a series of prizes announced this week. The Norwegian Nobel committee will announce the most anticipated of the annual honors -- the Nobel Peace Prize -- on Friday in Oslo.

Gurdon, 79, of Dippenhall, England, and Yamanaka, 50, of Osaka, Japan, share the prize jointly "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent" -- the ability of a cell to differentiate into another cell type, according to the Nobel committee.

Shinya Yamanaka (pictured) and Sir John B. Gurdon won the Nobel Prize in medicine for their revolutionary cell research.

Gurdon discovered in 1962 that the cells are reversible in an experiment with an egg cell of a frog. Yamanaka discovered 40 years later that mature cells in mice could be reprogrammed as immature cells, the committee said.

"These groundbreaking discoveries have completely changed our view of the development and cellular specialisation. We now understand that the mature cell does not have to be confined forever to its specialised state," the Nobel Assembly said in a statement following the announcement.

"Textbooks have been rewritten and new research fields have been established. By reprogramming human cells, scientists have created new opportunities to study diseases and develop methods for diagnosis and therapy.

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Nobel Prize in medicine awarded to Sir John Gurdon, Shinya Yamanaka