To solve the mystery, Dr Kandel, and his colleague Kausik Si, turned to embryonic development.
That discovery has cast light on human embryonic development and, indeed, on the everyday working of adult bodies.
ECONOMIST: The 2002 Nobel prizes: Windows on the world | The
Deactivating these genes during embryonic development does not kill the embryo (if it did, then that embryo would be stillborn).
In embryonic development, for example, some researchers believe that imprinted genes are involved in a conflict over how big the placenta should be, and thus how much nutrition it extracts from the mother.
Cyclopamine, it turns out, blocks the function of a gene called Sonic hedgehog that is essential for embryonic development but also plays a lead role in causing deadly cancers of the pancreas, skin, prostate and esophagus.
The second thing the team did was to introduce a genetic mutation into the genome of the young egg that allowed for the production of a growth factor, a kind of protein, that can only come from the paternal genome but is vital for normal embryonic development.
While China is already the second-largest economy in the world, it is still in an embryonic stage of development.
"We think we've found a common factor in the movement of embryonic cells during development and of cancer cells during the spread of the disease, " said Professor Stern.
In a recent development, embryonic stem cells have been created by using viruses to modify the genes of skin cells.
Geron and GE Healthcare, a division of General Electric, are developing and commercializing cellular assay products derived from human embryonic stem cells for use in drug discovery, development and toxicity screening.
General Electric ( GE - news - people ), are developing and commercializing cellular assay products derived from human embryonic stem cells for use in drug discovery, development and toxicity screening.
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