In directing stem cells, study shows context matters

Figuring out how blank slate stem cells decide which kind of cell they want to be when they grow up - a muscle cell, a bone cell, a neuron - has been no small task for science. Human pluripotent stem cells, the undifferentiated cells that have the potential to become any of the 220 types of cells in the body, are influenced in the lab dish by the cocktail of chemical factors and proteins upon which they are grown and nurtured.

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