2019 CVM News: From stem cells to heart muscle cells

This news item from Cornell Research is about: “These cells should start beating, like a heart, on the plate,” explains Calvin Schuster, an undergraduate researcher in Michael I. Kotlikoff’s lab, Biomedical Sciences. “And if the tool we designed works, they should begin to flash green with each beat.” Schuster’s work centers around the use of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These cells begin as adult somatic (body) cells and are subsequently modified to become pluripotent stem cells. That is, they become cells that can differentiate into any number of different cell types. They can become blood cells, muscle cells, or gastrointestinal cells, and others. Schuster is specifically interested in differentiating these stem cells so they become cardiomyocytes—heart muscle cells