Stem Cell Biology – A Practical Laboratory Manual

Description

Stem cell research and therapeutics has been captivating in recent decades due to its versatile discoveries on its potential to treat myriad of diseases. This is due to its properties of being undifferentiated, yet self-renews and differentiates into any type of cells, upon physiological signaling mechanisms. These sole attributes of stem cells, has created inquisitiveness in the minds of scientists and young researchers to explore every aspects of stem cells. This has opened a single doorway to the world of regenerative medicine, thereby saving millions of lives from wide diseases. Although stem cell is creating a new revolution in recent decades, due to its wider hypes and advancement in technologies, it is not becoming cost-effective for young generation University/college students to actually understand what stem cells are? Now-a-days, almost every life science course in College/ University either UG, PG or Specialized Diploma, has either a Unit on Stem cell or a full subject/paper on stem cell biology. Unfortunately, although learning about this new emerging field is imperative, academicians are unable to fulfill the stem cell practical due to the hype created about its tedious, costly coupled with advanced instrumentation facility. Thus, youngsters, being the future scientists are unaware about basic techniques of stem cell biology. Wide job opportunities are increasing day by day for youngsters in biotech industries, healthcare sectors, stem cell companies and banking sectors. Nevertheless, the students are unable to make the best use of these jobs, due to lack of basic know-how on stem cell biology or their basic laboratory techniques. This book is created to remove the bottleneck involved and help students to learn all the stem cell laboratory technique in a simple and easy fashion. We explain over here, the practical manual stem cell techniques that can be done with a basic culture laboratory set up. With such simple manual techniques coupled with shorter time and cost-effectiveness, students can understand all underlying principles and procedures involved in collection, isolation, enumeration, culturing, differentiation and in-vitro characterization of stem cells from various adult stem cell sources in a step-wise easy to understand manner. Although flowcytometry plays an important role in characterization of stem cells, due to cost of the machine, techniques of flowcytometry cannot be a part of lab manual in course of various Universities. However, to help the students, the authors are soon coming out with a new book on “Characterization of stem cells using flowcytometry: An easy Guide”.

About the Author

Dr. Indumathi Somasundaram, is an Assistant Professor at Dept. of Stem cells and Regenerative Medicine, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, D.Y. Patil Education Society, Kolhapur, since October 2014. She completed her post graduation in 2008, and worked as a researcher for a while at Department of Stem cells, Lifeline Multispeciality hospitals, Chennai before doing her PhD. She obtained her PhD from University of Madras (Loyola College) with her thesis focusing on reproductive stem cells. She then joined as a Research Associate at Department of Stem cell, National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR), Secunderabad before joining D.Y. Patil Education Society.