Researcher Shinya Yamanaka formally received the 2009 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for discoveries concerning nuclear reprogramming and stem cells at a ceremony Oct. 2 in New York.

Yamanaka, a Kyoto University professor, said in a speech at the ceremony that he wants to receive the prize on behalf of "many scientists" as his success in developing induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, is based on their past achievements in the field of nuclear reprogramming.

The award, worth $125,000, came several years after Yamanaka developed iPS cells, which have the potential to grow into body tissue.

He is the sixth Japanese researcher to receive the prestigious award, presented by the N.Y.-based Lasker Foundation. A number of people who have won the prize have gone on to receive a Nobel Prize.