Abstract
This chapter is aimed at introducing the structure of this book, which is inspired by the Stem Cell Biology and Technology course running in the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. Early mouse development is revisited as a basis for introducing the concept of pluripotent stem cells. A simple practical protocol is described in which the pluripotent differentiation potential of mouse embryonic stem cells is highlighted. Finally, students and readers are invited to navigate through some groundbreaking subjects that will be detailed in the following chapters, such as epigenetics, reprogramming, cloning, regenerative medicine and other innovative ideas spinning off the stem cell biology field.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to express my deep gratitude to all the students of the SCBT course for their hard work, enthusiasm and friendly interaction. I also want to thank Bernard Roelen for his inspirational lectures and discussions in the course, and Susana Chuva de Sousa Lopes for her continued support with cells, antibodies, and for sharing technical skills. Finally, I want to address a word of recognition to my colleague Sólveig Thorsteinsdóttir for her constant support, to Marta Palma and Luís Marques for their long-lasting cheerful help in the cell culture and the microscopy facilities, and to Ana Bernardo for drawing beautiful illustrations for this book.
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Rodrigues, G. (2020). Introduction: A Decade Teaching Stem Cell Biology. In: Rodrigues, G., Roelen, B.A.J. (eds) Concepts and Applications of Stem Cell Biology. Learning Materials in Biosciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43939-2_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43939-2_1
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