Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I have completed research on stem cell differentiation and need to do a physical demonstration on this topic. Do you have any ideas on what I could do for a physical demonstration?

Hi,

Stem cell research is not my field of expertise, but I think you would be interested in this book:

http://books.google.com/books?id=NQpemS ... =6#PPP1,M1

Which seems widely available through university libraries, and can possibly be had through inter library loan. You can see a fairly large excerpt on the web page. It seems to give protocols for some stem cell experiments, though I cannot judge how easy they would be to do in a high school laboratory. Here is a book review of it:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/05p ... lltext.pdf

You may be interested in this paper:

http://jcs.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/38/1/171.pdf

Here is a second book of possible use:

http://books.google.com/books?id=IpUfBI ... #PPA312,M1

And a possibly interesting website:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/ ... /sccreate/

If these links do not give you viable project ideas you might think about whether doing an experiment in embryology would suit your purposes. People have for example followed the development of C. elegans from egg to mature adult, mapping how each cell differentiates along the way. You could also look at the development of fish eggs, or other small critters, perhaps even chicken eggs.

http://avery.rutgers.edu/WSSP/StudentSc ... worms.html

http://www.bio.unc.edu/faculty/goldstei ... ovies.html

Hope this helps. This is a great area to explore! Have fun with it.

Best regards,

Barrett Tomlinson