John Gurdon Quotes

United Kingdom, Biologist
October 2, 1933

Sir John Bertrand Gurdon FRS FMedSci MAE (born 2 October 1933), is an English developmental biologist. He is best known for his pioneering research in nuclear transplantation and cloning.He was awarded the Lasker Award in 2009. In 2012, he and Shinya Yamanaka were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery that mature cells can be converted to stem cells.

For my part, I have worked all my life with eggs and embryos of frogs. Compared to other small animals, these have figured prominently in the world of literature.

John Gurdon
- Life
- World
- Small
I think that I cannot immediately see the route by which we should really understand memory and the workings of the brain.

John Gurdon
- Brain

In principle. what is done is to take the nucleus out of a cell with a very fine micro-pipette or needle and introduce it into an egg. That had been done with amphibians a long time ago, and then there was a long pause of many years before people were clever enough to make that work in the sheep.

John Gurdon
- People
- Time
- Work
If you explain to a patient what can be done and what might be the downsides, let the patient choose; don't have ethicists, priests, or doctors say you may or may not have replacement cells.

John Gurdon
- Done
- May
My first attempts to transplant nuclei in Xenopus were completely unsuccessful, because the Xenopus egg, unlike those of other amphibians, is surrounded by an extremely elastic membrane and jelly layer that make penetration by a micropipette impossible.

John Gurdon
Shinya Yamanaka's work has involved mice and human cells, and advances the prospect of providing new cells or body parts for patients.

John Gurdon
- Work