On my lab bench is a dish containing what are perhaps the world’s most famous cells.
Derived eight years ago by Wisconsin developmental biologist James Thomson, in whose lab I work, the human embryonic stem cells in front of me are happy, dividing with ease in their cocktail of nutrients and growth factors.
Cared for properly, these cells will divide in culture endlessly. They are the Energizer Bunnies of cells. They never stop dividing. A column by Tenneille Ludwig, a stem cell scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an affiliate of the WiCell Research Institute.