Welcome to The Science of Stem Cells, a course from the American Museum of Natural History. I am Dr. Zehra Dincer, a stem cell scientist and a stem cell educator here at the museum. I'm very excited to be your instructor for this course. We design the size of stem cells to introduce you to this groundbreaking area of biology. This knowledge will help you to analyze and understand these articles better, make educated medical decisions if you ever need to, and distinguish between what is real and what is fake medicine. You will hear from leading stem cell scientists who came to the museum to give lectures and to discuss their research. We also invited a panel of bioethics experts to discuss controversies surrounding stem cell research and what still needs to be done before embarking on clinical trials. The course consists of five parts. In part one, I will provide a basic overview of stem cells from the history of stem cells to their potential in research and treatment in humans. Then, my colleague, Dr. [inaudible] will discuss stem cells in other organisms. You will learn that stem cells are found throughout the tree of life. In part two, we will hear from Dr. Esteban Mazzoni from New York University, about how scientists study stem cells in a lab and how they can coax them to differentiate into particular cell types. Dr. Mazzoni will also talk about new stem cell assisted technologies such as mitochondrial replacement therapy, and generating chimeras for organ transplantation. In part three, Dr. Andrew Sproul from Columbia University, will be talking about the exciting technology of using human stem cells to model diseases in a culture dish. He will explain how culture cells can be used to understand the causes of diseases and to look for drugs that will potentially cure them. His research is on Alzheimer's disease. And we will also look at how stem cells have the potential to help with the study of diabetes. In part four, neural stem cell pioneer, Dr. Sally Temple, who is head of the Neural Stem Cell Institute and MacArthur genius award recipient, will be talking about how stem cells in our bodies can be used for treatments, in particular, age related macular degeneration. And finally, in part five of the course, a panel of three bioethics experts will discuss some controversies surrounding stem cells and concerns about the ethical use of stem cells in basic and clinical research. So, let's get started. Welcome to The Science of Stem Cells.