Question: what is it like to work with stem cells?

Vanessa Ward answered on 20 May 2020:

Hi Fatlum,
Thank you for your question. It’s amazing! I consider myself very lucky to work with such special cells. They need to be looked after very carefully if you want to keep them as stem cells, as the smallest thing (e.g. temperature, not feeding them correctly) can make them start changing into other types of cells. When this happens, even if it is not what you want to happen, it is really wonderful to see how they grow into different shaped cells. I could look at them under the microscope all day long, taking pictures, but then I’d never get any other work done!

Sometimes we want to make them “differentiate”, which means giving them the right signals for them to become a certain type of cells like muscle, bone, skin. This is also amazing as it shows how special stem cells are, that they can become any type of cell in the body with the right signals.