How stem cells move

Scientists from Newcastle University have shown that human embryonic stem cells move by travelling back and forth in a line, much like ants moving along their trails.Human stem cells are at the forefront of modern molecular biology research due to their ability to give rise to any specialist human cell type, a property known as pluripotency.However, stem cells are notoriously hard to grow in culture so to improve this, a team of mathematicians and stem cells biologists are developing mathematical models of stem cell behaviour, from a single or a few cells up to colonies of thousands.The research published today in Physical Biology sheds important light on how stem cells interact with each other and their environment.