Description:
With contributions from pioneers and experts, this book provides a broad overview of the challenges of stem cell engineering. It discusses advances made during the last decade that have led to increasingly defined culture systems for growing human ES cells, starting from co-culture with feeder cells in the presence of serum to growth on synthetic substrates in defined medium. The book highlights recent advances in the understanding of the cellular and molecular composition of the hematopoietic stem cell niche, as well as approaches to build upon this basic information to direct stem cell differentiation into blood cell lineages.