What Are Stem Cells?

About the lecture

In the first mini-lecture, we define the term stem cell by discussing the three key characteristics of one, before introducing some of the different types we can harvest from zygotes and blastocysts. To continue, we introduce the hierarchy of totipotent, pluripotent, and multipotent stem cells, as well as talk about the different varieties we find in the body: including neural, haematopoietic, mesenchymal and adipose stem cells. To finish off this lecture, we describe cell differentiation by contextualising it with stem cells down a hierarchy.

About the lecturer

Dr James G. Smith is a scientific group leader working with pluripotent stem cells at Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, UK. He completed his PhD at the University of Birmingham with a focus on mesenchymal stem cells and the extracellular matrix. He then undertook post-doctoral training at the University of Nottingham developing automated manufacture technologies for human pluripotent stem cells. He was later appointed as a senior research fellow, using CRISPR gene editing and hiPSCs as tools to investigate cardiovascular disease, before setting up my own group at UEA in 2019