The 2008 TIME 100 Finalists

Are They Worthy?
Toshifumi Kitamura / AFP / Getty

SHINYA YAMANAKA

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AGE: 61
OCCUPATION: Professor at the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences at Kyoto University
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 0

PRO: First in mouse cells and then in human ones, Yamanaka (working with James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin) proved that stem cells needn't come from human embryos — adult skin cells can be reprogrammed to act like stem cells.

CON: These cells tend to turn cancerous, as cancer-causing retroviruses are used to insert the genes into the cell's chromosomes.

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