Stem Cells

The second edition of Stem Cells: Scientific Facts and Fiction provides the non-stem cell expert with an understandable review of the history, current state of affairs, and facts and fiction of the promises of stem cells. Building on success of its award-winning preceding edition, the second edition features new chapters on embryonic and iPS cells and stem cells in veterinary science and medicine. It contains major revisions on cancer stem cells to include new culture models, additional interviews with leaders in progenitor cells, engineered eye tissue, and xeno organs from stem cells, as well as new information on "organs on chips" and adult progenitor cells. In the past decades our understanding of stem cell biology has increased tremendously. Many types of stem cells have been discovered in tissues that everyone presumed were unable to regenerate in adults, the heart and the brain in particular. There is vast interest in stem cells from biologists and clinicians who see the potential for regenerative medicine and future treatments for chronic diseases like Parkinson's, diabetes, and spinal cord lesions, based on the use of stem cells; and from entrepreneurs in biotechnology who expect new commercial applications ranging from drug discovery to transplantation therapies.

Christine Mummery is a Professor of Developmental Biology at Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands and head of the Department of Anatomy and Embryology. Her research concerns heart development and the differentiation of pluripotent human stem cells into the cardiac and vascular lineages and using these cells as disease models, for safety pharmacology, drug discovery and future cardiac repair. Immediate interests are on developing biophysical techniques for characterization and functional analysis of cardiovascular cells from hPSC. She was recently awarded a multimillion grant for this purpose and is awardee of a prestigious European Research Council Advanced Grant. A member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science, and former board member of the International Society of Stem Cell research and the Netherlands Medical Research Council, she's editor in chief of the ISSCR journal Stem Cell Reports and is also on the editorial boards of Cell Stem Cell, Cardiovascular Research and Stem Cells.

1. Biology of the cell2. Embryonic development3. Of mice and men: History of stem cells4. What are stem cells?5. Origin of stem cells6. Types of stem cells7. Cloning: History and current applications8. Clinical applications of stem cells9. Cancer stem cells10. Applications for drugs and toxicity screening11. Venturing in stem cells (law and intellectual property)12. Future prospects