An Interview with Sir John Gurdon

From the ridiculous to the sublime...

The University of Cambridge present an interview with the 2012 Nobel prize winner in Physiology or Medicine, Sir John Gurdon.

His research has played an instrumental part in the field of developmental Biology and, alongside Shinya Yamanaka, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering that mature cells could be converted back into the undifferentiated stem cell state.

In this interview he discusses his career involving his work in nuclear transplantation and cloning, what it's like to receive a Nobel prize and memories of learning science at school days when his biology report referred to his work as "disastrous", his school master noting:

"I believe he has ideas about becmonig a scientist; on his present showing this is quite ridiculous"

Gurdon has spent a large majority of his research career at the University of Cambridge and was Fullerian Professor of Physiology and Comparative Anatomy at the Ri from 1985 to 1991.

You can find out more about this year's Nobel prize winners in our blog post or listen to Sir John speak at the Ri in June 2012.