Life through the lens
Introduction: Stem Cells
Stem cells are unspecialized cells that serve as the source, or "stem," for specialized cells like heart, brain, or blood cells. Found in days-old embryos and a few adult organs, stem cells have two unique properties: they can change into other types of cells, and theoretically, they can divide without limit. The images and movies below were taken at the Microscope Imaging Station.

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Heart cells grown from mouse embryonic stem cells - movie 2
These beating cardiac myocytes (heart cells) were grown from mouse embryonic stem cells. The movie is shown in real time.

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Beating cardiac myocytes (heart cells) were grown from mouse embryonic stem cells using standard procedures. Cardiac myocytes were grown in chambered coverslips in standard growth media. The movie was taken on an inverted compound microscope with a 40x phase contrast objective using a digital video camera.