Liquid crystals are not just used to display information on cell phones, monitors and other electronic equipment alone, but also to report the differentiation of embryonic stem cells in real time.

Differentiation is the process by which embryonic stem cells gradually turn into function specific type of adult cells or so-called "cell lineages", including skin, heart or brain cells.

The main challenge facing stem cell research is that of guiding differentiation along these well-defined controlled lineages. Stem cells grown in the laboratory tend to differentiate in an uncontrolled manner, resulting in a mixture of cells of little medical use.

The team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have shown that by mechanically straining the cells as they grow, the uncontrolled differentiation in stem cells is significantly reduced, if not eliminated. The team reported this liquid crystal-based cell culture system in an article in the March issue of Advanced Functional Materials.

[Source: UW-Madison]