Defined as, “The science about the development of an embryo from the fertilization of the ovum to the fetus stage,” embryology has been a mainstay at universities throughout the world for many years. Throughout the last century, embryology became overshadowed by experimental-based genetics and cell biology, transforming the field into developmental biology, which replaced embryology in Biology departments in many universities. Major contributions in this young century in the fields of molecular biology, biochemistry and genomics were integrated with both embryology and developmental biology to provide an understanding of the molecular portrait of a “development cell.” That new integrated approach is known as stem-cell biology; it is an understanding of the embryology and development together at the molecular level using engineering, imaging and cell culture principles, and it is at the heart of this seminal book. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine: From Molecular Embryology to Tissue Engineering is completely devoted to the basic developmental, cellular and molecular biological aspects of stem cells as well as their clinical applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. It focuses on the basic biology of embryonic and cancer cells plus their key involvement in self-renewal, muscle repair, epigenetic processes, and therapeutic applications. In addition, it covers other key relevant topics such as nuclear reprogramming induced pluripotency and stem cell culture techniques using novel biomaterials. A thorough introduction to stem-cell biology, this reference is aimed at graduate students, post-docs, and professors as well as executives and scientists in biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine Series Editor Kursad Turksen
[email protected] For other titles published in this series, go to http://www.springer.com/series/7896 Krishnarao Appasani Raghu K. Appasani Editors Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine From Molecular Embryology to Tissue Engineering Foreword by Sir John B. Gordon Editors Krishnarao Appasani GeneExpressions Systems, Inc Waltham, MA 02454 USA
[email protected] Raghu K. Appasani Student Science Boston, MA USA
[email protected] ISBN 978-1-60761-859-1 e-ISBN 978-1-60761-860-7 DOI 10.1007/978-1-60761-860-7 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2010938600 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Humana Press, c/o Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Humana Press is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Preface Embryology is a branch of biology that has an immediate bearing on the problem of “life.” Life cannot be fully accounted for without an