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Stem Cells!
With the revolutionary mark of change that stem cell research holds, stem cells have been able to carve a future in our modern age of healthcare. With the ability to differentiate into many cell types that are specialized or becoming a treatment and therapy for the process of regeneration, it is pertinent to understand the use and significance of stem cells in a medical healthcare setting and how they ultimately make a big contribution to our society today. To begin, stem cells are unspecialized cella that are able to differentiate into many specialized cell types, some cellular characteristics including "nerve cells for the brain, cardiac cells for the heart, and liver cells for the liver" (Dr. Zur Neiden Lecture 1, slide 4). They derive from three different types of tissue: Embryonic Tissue, Adult Tissue, and Embryonic Tissue.

Scientists can isolate stem cells and put them on a culture dish to further identify and be able to manipulate them. The importance of putting stem cells into a culture dish is to further understand the role of cell differentiation along with "identifying drug targets and testing potential therapeutics along with toxicity testing" (Dr. Zur Neiden Lecture 1, slide 8).

Background Information
Now, stem cells are important to us because they go a series of steps: Self-Renewing, Proliferation, Differentiation, Symmetric Cell Division, and Asymmetric Cell Division. Self - Renewing: This term refers to the process of stem cells being able to generate copies of itself, "dividing themselves into the same non-specialized cell type over long periods" (Dr Zur Neiden Lecture 1, slide 14)

Proliferation: The process in which a stem cell does to rapidly multiplying, overall creating an overwhelming amount of stem cells. They are also "single cells into two identical daughter cells" (Dr. Zur Neiden Lecture 1, slide 14)

Differentiation: When stem cells decide to change into a specific cell type, such a s a liver cell, blood cell, or muscle cell. In this process, they can also "perform muscle contraction or nerve cell communication" (Dr. Zur Neiden Lecture 1, slide 14)

Symmetric Cell Division: Stem Cells that were able to divide into 2 identical daughter stem cells with no specialized cell involved.

Asymmetric Cell Division: Stem Cells that during cell division, 2 stem cells are formed: One daughter stem cell is generated and the other stem cell is a specialized cell that has a "different identity that is slightly more differentiated". (Dr. Zur Neiden Lecture 1, slide 19).

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs)
iPSCs, also known as induced pluripotent stem cells, are stem cells that are able to bring adult cells back into a specific pluripotent state. These stem cells need transcription factors that are able to bring these stem cells into a specific pluripotent state. These transcription factors include: Oct 3/4, Sox2, c-Myc, and Klf4. iPSCs are generated throughout a specific process where a transgenic mouse is used ultimately "taking fibroblasts from the skin and put in culture" (Dr. Zur Neiden Lecture 14, slide 114). Once in culture, the fibroblasts would need to be rectro-viral transfected, which would then change to go through antibiotic selection and grow within culture. The cells that did not "take up the virus" would die, which would leave the remaining stem cells that expressed the transcription factors that would overall live through in culture. To prove that these stem cells were indeed pluripotent, a blastocyst injection assay would be need to further show that once it was in an inner cell mass then injected into a regular mouse, and a chimeric mouse would form. Once the second generation of mice have risen, an iPS-derived mouse would be created.