NEW YORK – Two scientists from different generations won the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for the groundbreaking discovery that cells in the body can be reprogrammed into completely different kinds, work that reflects the mechanism behind cloning and offers an alternative to using embryonic stem cells.

The work of British researcher John Gurdon and Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka — who was born the year Gurdon made his discovery — holds hope for treating diseases like Parkinson’s and diabetes by growing customized tissue for transplant.

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British scientist John Gurdon, left, and Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka, right, were named winners of the 2012 Nobel Prize in medicine for their work in cell biology. Left: AP/Matt Dunham; right: Kyodo News

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And it has spurred a new generation of laboratory studies into other illnesses, including schizophrenia, which may lead to new treatments.

Basically, Gurdon, 79, and Yamanaka, 50, showed how to make the equivalent of embryonic stem cells without the ethical questions those versatile cells pose, a promise scientists are now scrambling to fulfill.

Once created, these “blank slate” cells can be nudged toward developing into other cell types. Skin cells can ultimately be transformed into brain cells, for example.

Just last week, scientists reported turning skin cells from mice into eggs that produced baby mice, a possible step toward new fertility treatments.

Gurdon and Yamanaka performed “courageous experiments” that challenged scientific opinion, said Doug Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

“Their work shows … that while cells might be specialized to do one thing, they have the potential to do something else,” Melton said. It “really lays the groundwork for all the excitement about stem cell biology.”

In announcing the $1.2 million award, the Nobel committee at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute said the work has “revolutionized our understanding of how cells and organisms develop.”

Gurdon showed in 1962 that DNA from specialized cells of tadpoles, like skin or intestinal cells, could be used to clone more tadpoles.

In 1997, the same process led to the cloning of Dolly the sheep, showing it would also work in mammals.

Gurdon told reporters in London that at the time of his discovery, it had “no obvious therapeutic benefit at all. … It was almost 50 years before the value — the potential value — of that basic scientific research came to light.”

Forty-four years after Gurdon’s discovery, in 2006, Yamanaka and his team moved beyond tadpoles. They showed that a surprisingly simple recipe could turn mouse skin cells back into primitive cells, which in turn could be prodded into different kinds of mature cells. The work was later repeated with human cells.

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