Stem cells are the versatile building blocks from which every cell type in the body, from neurons, to skin cells, to blood cells, is ultimately descended. Researchers have also figured out how to turn stem cells into different cell types in the lab, which has been helpful for studying health and disease in their normal cellular contexts, and could be used to generate cells for medical transplants. Whitehead Institute Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch not only uses these cells in his research, but has spent much of his career discovering and improving the methods for making accurate laboratory models out of stem cell-derived cells.
