UW's Thomson one of Time's 'World's Most Influential People'
UW researcher and stem cell pioneer James Thomson has been named one of the 100 people in Time magazine's "World's Most Influential People" in this week's issue.
Thomson falls in the Scientists and Thinkers category, and appears on the page with Shinya Yamanaka of Japan's Kyoto University, who also is a leading-edge scientist on stem cell technology.
Thomson and Yamanaka each discovered it was "possible to give adult human cells many of the characteristics of embryonic stem cells, avoiding entirely the issue of whether embryos would be destroyed in the process," according to the magazine report.
The magazine says: "The precise mechanism that led to Yamanaka's and Thomson's achievement last year is not yet understood, but the potential of that achievement is; it is a potential that could be unlimited."
To see the entry for Thomson, click here.
