Human Stem Cell Proliferation and Differentiation: Lessens From a Lost Era of Research

Human Stem Cell Proliferation and Differentiation: Lessens From a Lost Era of Research

In the last decade with the advent of methodologies to culture human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and to generate induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from terminally differentiated tissues, there has been an enormous surge in research aimed at differentiating human stem cells into a plethora of different tissue types for use in regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicine has in turn focused on how to engineer human cells for transplantation into organs as well as 3D printing. In the rush to generate these stem cell therapies, most research aimed at the generation of one cell type or another from hESC or iPS cells has utilized chemical libraries or drugs to identify differentiating agents.