February 2, 2009 – On January 30 the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) announced that it would award the JSPS Prize to CDB Team Leader Teruhiko Wakayama for his “use of biotechnology to advance the field of reproductive biology.” This mark the fifth year of the JSPS Prize, which was established to recognize and support creative and talented researchers at an early stage in their careers.

Wakayama rose to international acclaim in 1997 when he reported the first cloning of a mouse, and has followed on that achievement with work on ES cells from nuclear transfer embryos and exploring the mechanisms of genomic reprogramming that are essential to both cloning and natural reproduction. His lab recently gained worldwide notice when it reported that it had cloned a mouse from a donor animal that had been dead and frozen for 16 years.

“Much of the recent focus on understanding biological mechanisms has been at the molecular level, which has sometimes made it difficult for those of us working in technology development to gain support for our work,” says Wakayama. “So I was happy that the selection committee felt that cloning technology was worthy of recognition.”