Stem Cell Activities at Vanderbilt

The mission of the Vanderbilt Center for Stem Cell Biology is to learn more about the biology of stem cells and mechanisms for directing their differentiation to specific cell fates.

Embryonic stem cells are able to differentiate into any of the many different cell types found in the body. A great deal remains to be learned about them, and how to convert them into various tissue and cell types that can be used to treat a variety of human diseases.

The Vanderbilt Center for Stem Cell Biology is home for the Coordinating Center for the Beta Cell Biology Consortium. A major goal of this consortium of scientists is to learn how to make pancreatic beta cells, which are destroyed in Type 1 diabetes, from embryonic stem cells.