Shinya Yamanaka
Director and Professor at the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at Kyoto University
Meet Shinya Yamanaka
Shinya Yamanaka believes the number one obstacle for advanced therapies is time and cost. “It could take decades and hundreds of millions of dollars to bring a breakthrough in basic research to patients,” he says. “How to survive this long and costly journey is the biggest hurdle.” Yamanaka believes the current goal in his field of regenerative medicine is to reactivate patients’ own regenerating potentials by small molecules or other means, without transplanting cells from outside.