Our Stem Cell Learning Lab at the Biotechnology Center merged with the Morgridge Institute for Research science outreach program in September 2024. For more information about stem cell outreach and other UW–Madison science field trips, please visit UW–Madison Cross-Campus Science Field Trips.
History
The Stem Cell Learning Lab was made possible in 2008 by a grant from the Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment. It was a collaboration among the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center, Biotechnology Center, WiCell, Student Society for Stem Cell Research (SSSCR) and SCRMC Graduate Student Association. From 2008 to 2024, more than 28,000 visiting students and community members from Wisconsin and beyond gained a greater understanding of stem cell research and regenerative medicine through this free, hands-on experience. Learners viewed real stem cells under the microscope and used the same equipment and methods researchers use to prepare and grow their cells. Participants used realistic cell and media substitutes due to cost and biosafety restrictions.
What are stem cells? TED-Ed video and curriculum produced September 2013 by Craig A. Kohn and the UW-Madison Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center. (With lesson plans updated in 2019 for teachers!)
In this educational video, Mimi Gerner, who was a research specialist in the lab of David Gamm, M.D., Ph.D., describes basic stem cell culture techniques. (Produced by the UW-Madison Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine Center, September 2012.)
Did you know?
James Thomson, PhD, from UW–Madison was the first in the world to grow monkey and then human embryonic stem cells, in the 1990s. His colleagues at UW–Madison then grew some of the first types of differentiated cells from those stem cells, such as skin cells (Lynn Allen-Hoffmann, PhD); neurons (Su-Chun Zhang, PhD); retinal cells (David Gamm, MD, PhD); and cardiomyocytes, or heart muscle cells (Timothy Kamp, MD, PhD). Dr. Kamp’s heart cells even came together and started to beat in the lab dish just like a real heart!
Here are some more cool beating heart cell videos:
- Beating heart cells in a lab (Slate: University of California Berkeley, Gladstone Institute)
- Beating cardiac myocytes (Maki Sugimoto, MD, PhD, Teikyo University Okinaga Research Institute Innovation Lab)
- Heart cells derived from iPSC stem cells (Stem Cell Applications, Inc.)
UW–Madison stem cell history:
- A science trailblazer retires: Stem cell researcher James Thomson’s legacy changed the future of biology
- Stem cell research: Celebrating 25 years of amazing discoveries
Latest UW–Madison stem cell news, events and opportunities:
In this educational 2022 video, Casey Ostheimer shows how she passages kidney cells in Owen Tamplin’s Cell and Regenerative Biology lab at UW–Madison. (See a glossary for this video.)