Atlas of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells in Culture

This lavishly-illustrated, authoritative atlas explores the intricate art of culturing human pluripotent stem cells. Twelve chapters – containing more than 280 color illustrations – cover a variety of topics in pluripotent stem cell culturing including mouse and human fibroblasts, human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells, characteristic staining patterns, and abnormal cultures, among others. Atlas of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells in Culture is a comprehensive collection of illustrated techniques complemented by informative and educational captions examining what good quality cells look like and how they behave in various environments. Examples of perfect cultures are compared side-by-side to less-than-perfect and unacceptable examples of human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cell colonies. This detailed and thorough atlas is an invaluable resource for researchers, teachers, and students who are interested in or working with stem cell culturing.

Dr. Lyn Healy started her training at the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research in Manchester, England, in the experimental hematology laboratory of Dr. T. M. Dexter, where she obtained her master’s degree. From there, she moved to London’s Institute of Cancer Research, where she worked in the Leukemia Research Fund Centre and obtained her Ph.D from the University of London on stem cells in normal and leukemogenic hemopoiesis. She joined the United Kingdom Stem Cell Bank (UKSCB) at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control as the Senior Stem Cell Biologist. Dr. Healy runs the research and development program at the UKSCB and plays an active role in training scientists in pluripotent stem cell culture. She has collaborated on training courses hosted by the Centre for Stem Cell Biology in Sheffield and has run courses at the UKSCB. In addition, she set up the UKSCB Technical Forum where scientists discuss and resolve practical challenges in the field of stemcell culture. Dr. Healy has published more than forty peer-reviewed papers on stem cell biology.

Ludmila Ruban obtained her MSc in physiology at the University of Kiev, Ukraine. She began work on human embryonic stem cells (hESC) in Peter Andrews’ and Harry Moore’s laboratory in Sheffield University, which later became the Centre for Stem Cell Biology. This group was one of the first in the United Kingdom and Europe to start working with the Wisconsin human embryonic stem cell lines. The Centre has been awarded one of the first two licenses granted by the U.K. Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for derivation of hESC, and she has helped derive several new stem cell lines. She was also actively involved in the training of national and international researchers within the Centre and coordinated, organized, and taught at the Centre's annual practical training course for academics, “Working with Human Embryonic Stem Cells." She joined the Department of Biochemical Engineering at University College London, and her research interests lie primarily in the area of human embryonic stem cells, specifically optimization of tissue culture conditions for stem cell lines. She also has an interest in stem cell bioprocessing.