Scientists from Britain and Japan shared a Nobel prize yesterday for the discovery that adult cells can be transformed back into embryo-like stem cells that may one day regrow tissue in damaged brains, hearts or other organs.

British researcher John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka of Japan have won this year’s Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology.

BRITAIN’S fertility watchdog yesterday postponed a decision on whether to allow women to donate eggs for cloning research until it had gathered opinion from experts and members of the public.