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Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

In this Monday, Oct. 8, 2012 photo combo, British scientist John Gurdon, left, speaks in London, and Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka, right, speaks in Kyoto after they were named winners of the 2012 Nobel Prize in medicine (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, left; Kyodo News, right) 

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.

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 very versatile cells pose, a promise scientists are now scrambling to fulfil.

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.