2023-09-14 14:00:21
Salamanca, Sep 14 (EFE).- The Japanese doctor and Nobel Prize winner in Physiology and Medicine Shinya Yamanaka, key in the research of cellular regeneration, has been awarded this Thursday an honorary doctorate by the University of Salamanca (USAL).
During his speech, Yamanaka dedicated a special memory to the figure of his father and explained how his “extraordinary personality” and the incurable illness he suffered led him in his youth to his medical vocation, which he later directed towards its more scientific aspect in the search for therapeutic solutions for patients with pathologies without the possibility of treatment.
The Japanese scientist, invested honoris causa with the traditional solemn ceremony in Latin in the USAL Auditorium, is the father of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) that revolutionized biomedical research in the area of cell regeneration.
Yamanaka, thus a precursor of decisive lines in cellular research, has been affiliated with Kyoto University since 2004 and has been awarded prestigious international prizes, among which the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 2012 stands out.
At the ceremony, the professor and director of the Hispanic-Japanese Cultural Center of the USAL, José-Abel Flores Villarejo, acted as godfather of the new doctor, who explained that “the fact of obtaining iPS cells in people with some disease or genetic dysfunction “It has defined the line that is providing medical discoveries with the potential to define very new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.”
2023: YEAR OF JAPAN IN THE USAL
The granting of the honorary institutional doctorate to the Japanese scientist is part of the outstanding actions of the University in this year 2023, declared Japan Year at USAL.
In that sense, the rector, Ricardo Rivero, has stated that Yamanaka’s academic recognition at the university “exemplifies the appreciation of this ancient University for the best version of science which the scientist personifies and prolongs the academic bridge of Salamanca to Japan”.
The event was attended by academic and institutional authorities such as the Japanese ambassador to Spain, Takahiro Nakamae; the director of the Japan Foundation in Madrid, Keiko Morito; the general director of Casa Asia, Javier Parrondo; and the deans of the faculties of Medicine and Biology, José Carretero and José Ángel Sánchez Agudo, respectively. EFE
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