Joy Kong, MD explains what stem cells are: cells that can make copies of themselves and transform into specialized cell types. The video covers the two core properties that define stem cells, self-renewal and differentiation, and sets up how they're used in clinical practice.
Can you explain to somebody who doesn't know what stem cells are, what they are, and how to use them, and what people most commonly come to you for?
The definition is that the cells have a capability for self renewal, so they can make more copies of themselves. Not only make more copies, but they can make copies that are more specialized. Often when the cells divide, when a stem cell divide, it divides into a copy of itself. Identical copy, another copy that's just a little different, that's gaining function, able to do certain kind of work. Because they're able to do that, they can always maintain a copy of itself while giving out more offspring. So that's really the definition of stem cells.
