Also: ES cells, hESC, pluripotent stem cells
Embryonic stem cells come from very early embryos and can grow indefinitely and become any body cell type. They opened modern stem cell biology.
Readiness: lab lab studies · prototype demonstrated objects · commercial products or buildings in real use · review summaries of other studies.
Evans and Kaufman established pluripotent cell lines grown from mouse embryos.
Built / tested: mouse ES cell lines
As reported in: Evans, Kaufman (1981). Establishment in culture of pluripotential cells from mouse embryos. Nature. doi:10.1038/292154a0
Abstract only
Gail Martin independently isolated a pluripotent cell line from early mouse embryos and coined the term embryonic stem cell.
Built / tested: mouse ES cell lines
As reported in: Martin (1981). Isolation of a pluripotent cell line from early mouse embryos cultured in medium conditioned by teratocarcinoma stem cells.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi:10.1073/pnas.78.12.7634
Thomson and colleagues derived the first human embryonic stem cell lines from blastocysts.
Built / tested: human ES cell lines
As reported in: Thomson, Itskovitz-Eldor, Shapiro et al. (1998). Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Derived from Human Blastocysts. Science. doi:10.1126/science.282.5391.1145
Abstract only