Mouse Teeth, Tissue Regeneration, and You

If you’ve watched the news at any point in the last decade and a half, then it’s likely that you have heard of stem cells. Stem cells, in short, are a special type of cell that can turn into any other kind of cell, and they have been researched heavily within the field of medicine. Hypothetically, they could easily help a burn victim regrow skin or heal torn ligaments in an athlete’s knee. However, there are still a lot of things scientists don’t completely understand about stem cells, such as how they “know” which cells to turn into. The University of California- San Francisco sought to answer this question using an unlikely source…mouse teeth. (more…)